Field Hockey

This Week in ACC Field Hockey: UNC Faces Penn State in NCAA Semis

ACC Release
https://theacc.co/2FD3CXE

ACC champion and top-seeded  North Carolina (19-0) takes on Penn State (17-3) in Friday's noon NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship semifinal game at Storrs, Connecticut. 

No. 2 seed and defending NCAA champion Northwestern (19-4)  faces No. 3 seed Maryland (19-3) in Friday's second semifinal game. The winners will meet Sunday at 1:30 p.m. for the national title.

Each of Friday's semifinal games will be carried live by ESPN+, while Sunday's final will be televised nationally by ESPNU. The complete 2022 NCAA Field Hockey Championship bracket can be found here.
 
Quick Hits
• The ACC leads all conferences with 21 NCAA Division I field hockey national titles, including 14 of the last 20. 

• The ACC has placed at least one team among the NCAA Women’s Field Hockey final four in 33 of the last 34 years.

• Forty-four of the last 80 teams to reach the national semifinals have been ACC teams.

• North Carolina's nine national field hockey titles – all under head coach Karen Shelton’s watch – tie for the most in NCAA Division I history. Old Dominion has also claimed nine NCAA Division I titles. The Tar Heels lead all programs in NCAA wins (75) and NCAA games played (104).

• The ACC has placed multiple teams in the NCAA tournament field for each of the past 28 years. The ACC’s five teams in this year’s NCAA field tied for the most of any conference. This marked the ninth time in the last 10 seasons that at least four conference teams earned NCAA bids.

• ACC champion North Carolina is part of the NCAA field for the 20th consecutive year and a nation-leading 39th time overall during Karen Shelton's tenure as head coach. 

• Six ACC teams were ranked among the nation’s top 20 in the final 2022 NFHCA Coaches’ Poll, including four among the top 10. Top-ranked North Carolina was followed by No. 5 Virginia, No. 8 Syracuse, No. 10 Wake Forest, No. 12 Louisville and No. 20 Boston College.

• Led by five-time ACC Offensive Player of the Year Erin Matson, North Carolina enters Friday's noon NCAA semifinal game versus Penn State leading the nation in both scoring (4.04 ppg) and scoring margin (3.05).

• Matson, a two-time winner of both the NFHCA National Player of the Year and Honda Award for Field Hockey, is the ACC's all-time leading scorer with 330 career points and also ranks as the all-time leader in career goals with 134.