UNC women's lacrosse overpowers Cal, 21-7, to remain undefeated

The No. 1 UNC women’s lacrosse team (14-0, 8-0 ACC) defeated Cal (6-9, 0-7 ACC), 21-7 in a landslide win to maintain an undefeated record and clinch the ACC No. 1 seed. 

UNC won the face-off and set the tone for the game. 

Twenty-eight seconds into the quarter first-year attacker Chloe Humphrey opened the scoring for the Tar Heels. Just 30 seconds later junior attacker Kiley Mottice found the back of the net. North Carolina went up two less than a minute into the game. 

The Tar Heels didn’t back down. 

“That was our goal [to score early],” head coach Jenny Levy said. “Our goal was not to be casual.  Our standard is to try to compare ourselves to what a perfect game would look like. So regardless of the opponent that we play, we want to keep our standard.”

Mottice found the corner of the net again on a free position and first-year midfielder Eliza Osburn scored unassisted off of a face-off control forcing the Golden Bears to call their first timeout. 

Still the Tar Heels couldn’t be stopped. North Carolina followed with two more goals to go up 6-0 with 8:30 left in the first quarter. 

Cal got on the board in the eighth minute but UNC immediately responded after senior attacker Olivia Vergano blasted a shot from the 8-meter arc. 

The Golden Bears and Tar Heels swapped another pair of goals. 

“I thought we gave up in the first half, some easy goals, I think we need to get better on," Levy said. "It's good to see a team that challenge us in a different way, and then we can go back to film and say, ‘OK, this is something we have to work on.’”

North Carolina finished the first quarter up 10-3. 

The Tar Heels started the second half right where they left off with sophomore midfielder Kaleigh Harden scoring 40 seconds into the quarter. Vergano followed with her second goal of the game 30 seconds later. 

Graduate attacker Ashley Humphrey added another for North Carolina when she picked up the ball behind the net and ran to the front to score. Two minutes later she found the back of the net again to pick up her second goal of the game. 

The Golden Bears swapped their goalie to try and slow down the Tar Heels but Chloe Humphrey scored on a free position shot for her 57th goal of the season. 

The Tar Heels entered the half up 17-4. 

North Carolina continued where it left off with sophomore attacker Marissa White scoring just 15 seconds into the second half. 

“We just have so much trust in one another and know that no matter who has the ball in whoever's stick, they're gonna do what they need to do,” White said.

Graduate midfielder Nicole Humphrey followed with her first goal of the game in the fourth minute.

“Everyone brings so much hard work every day and you just love to be able to get everyone on the field and everyone playing,” White said. “No matter what your role is, everyone just means so much to this team and plays such an important role.”

White scored just a minute later to put away her fifth goal of the game. 

The Golden Bears scored their first back-to-back games of the game to cut their deficit to 14. 

The Tar Heels ended the third up 20-6. 

Cal opened up the scoring in the fourth quarter with a goal from junior attacker Courtney Wong. 

Junior defender Liv Pikiell scored for the Tar Heels on a free position with 2:22 left in the game for UNC’s only goal of the final quarter. 

The Tar Heels will travel to Durham to take on the Duke Blue Devils on Thursday, April 17 at 6 p.m. in their final regular season game of the year.  

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