Chloe Humphrey leads UNC women's lacrosse to ACC regular season title year after injury
UNC redshirt-freshman Chloe Humphrey (2) fights for the ball during the women’s lacrosse game against Duke on Thursday, April 17 at Koskinen Stadium. UNC defeated Duke 18-5.
Chloe Humphreyskipped practice about a week before the 2024 UNC women’s lacrosse season started.
There was a nagging pain in her foot. Humphrey took a precautionary trip to the doctor’s office. She found out she would not touch the field during her first season at North Carolina due to a stress reaction.
But then one doctor said something unexpected. The injury could end her lacrosse career.
“Just to hear those words come out of a doctor’s mouth,” Humphrey said. “You kind of freak out.”
She knew she had to do whatever it took to get back on the field.
And now, after redshirting her true first year, Humphrey is back on the field, lifting the Tar Heels to their best season in three years.
UNC redshirt-freshman Chloe Humphrey (2) cradles the ball during the women’s lacrosse game against Duke on Thursday, April 17, 2025 at Koskinen Stadium.
No. 1 North Carolina dominated No. 10 Duke, 18-6, on Thursday night to become ACC regular season champions for the 11th time and eighth time outright in program history. In the victory game at Koskinen Stadium, Humphrey scored six goals, moving the redshirt first-year attacker to No. 7 all-time on North Carolina’s single-season scoring list. Humphrey’s 64 goals are the most scored in one season by a UNC first-year since Jamie Ortega in 2018 (70).
“I’ve always had team goals and the individual goals have just fallen,” Humphrey said. “Ever since I was in fifth grade, all I dreamt of was winning a national championship at UNC.”
That long-standing goal might not be so distant anymore.
UNC remains the only undefeated team in the nation at 15-0. The last time the Tar Heels started a season this hot was in 2022 when they won the national championship. North Carolina is riding a nation-best 15-game winning streak, including nine wins over top-25 ranked teams and six wins against squads in the top 10.
And Humphrey has been an integral part of it all.
She leads UNC in scoring and is sixth in the country in goals and goals per game. The Darien, Conn., native has scored at least two goals in each game this season, including a hat trick in 12 of North Carolina’s 15 games this season. She has notched four or more goals in eight of the last 10 contests.
The players welcome each other onto the field before the start of the women's lacrosse game against Duke on Thursday, April 17, 2025 at Koskinen Stadium.
But the story wasn’t quite the same for Humphrey and the perennial powerhouse last season.
This time last year, the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2023 stood on the sideline, watching as her teammates limped to a 10-5 regular season record. Humphrey was on the bench with three injured All-ACC honorees while North Carolina lost in the first round of both the ACC and the NCAA tournaments.
During her recovery period, Humphrey attended every film session with UNC’s attackers and helped the players on the field. She also had a close support system.
Her sister, graduate attacker Ashley, was Humphrey’s personal chauffeur to class while Chloe used crutches.
Graduate midfielder Nicole Humphrey , Chloe’s oldest sister, was nursing a Lisfranc injury herself while completing her master’s degree at the University of Southern California. The two would talk about the annoyances of crutches and boots and how their rehabilitations were coming along. Nicole transferred to UNC to play with her sisters with her final year of eligibility.
After taking the time to heal, Chloe Humphrey has learned to be “a pro with her body,” according to head coach Jenny Levy.
Ashley said it’s also been a “silver lining" since Chloe has had the unique opportunity of having a breakout season with her two sisters by her side.
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UNC redshirt-freshman Chloe Humphrey (2) drives with the ball during the women’s lacrosse game against Duke on Thursday, April 17, 2025 at Koskinen Stadium.
“It’s been truly an honor to be beside her,” Ashley Humphrey said. “She’s probably the greatest player I’ve ever played with.”
Chloe Humphrey entered the game against Duke needing only one goal to crack North Carolina’s top-10 single-season scoring list, but she did more than that. Her six goals matched her career-best, which she’s hit four times this season.
With 12 minutes to go in the third period, Humphrey took a blow to the head that sent her to the right-center hash on the eight-meter arc for a free position shot. She wound up her stick low and whipped the ball to the top right corner of the goal past Duke’s goalkeeper Chloe Provenzano. The shot launched the redshirt first-year past assistant coach Marie McCool on the scoring list.UNC took a 14-3 lead.
McCool said that “records are meant to be broken,” and that Humphrey holds herself to the highest standard — sometimes even to a fault.
“Her work ethic is unmatched, honestly,” McCool said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
As North Carolina now approaches the ACC tournament next week and the NCAA championships further down the road, people will have to wait and see what Humphrey has in store.
But McCool already has an idea that she’s got a lot more ahead of her:
