ACC field hockey: UNC again popular in coaches pre-season survey

GREENSBORO, NC (theACC.com) The three-time defending national champion North Carolina favors the fifth consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference field hockey title in a vote by the league’s seven head coaches.

Led by two-year national player Erin Matson, Tar Heels aims to be the first field hockey team in NCAA Division I history to receive four straight national titles. UNC brings an 18-match winning streak for the 2021 season, and a Louisville loss of 3-1 last October was a Tar Heels event in just the last three years.

UNC received six first-place votes and ranked 48 points above this year’s ACC pre-poll. Boston College (30 points) was selected second, while Virginia collected the remaining first ballot and held 3rd 25 points.

Wake Forest (24 points) finished fourth in the vote, while Duke, Louisville and Syracuse finished fifth with 23 points.

The prediction for the tough league competition follows through 2020-21, with all seven ACC teams ranked in the top 20 of the NFHCA’s national rankings. The ACC leads all conferences in 21 NCAA field hockey championships and has placed at least one team in 29 national championships in the last 32 seasons.

National rankings for the 2021 NFHCA Division I season are scheduled to be announced on Tuesday.

Boston College led all the schools where the coaches selected three players for the 2021 Preseason All-ACC Field Hockey team, including dominant ACC Defender of the Year goalkeeper Jonna Kennedy. Louisville and North Carolina each placed two players on an 11-member pre-season team, and at least one player was selected on each of the seven teams in the conference.

The ACC teams will begin the regular season match this weekend packed with an out-of-conference table featuring a North Carolina neutral game and Michigan on Friday (2 p.m. in Iowa City), the latest of last season’s national championship game. Wake Forest will face host Iowa, who joined UNC, Louisville and Michigan last season in the final four seasons of the NCAA in the second game of Friday’s double count.

The first conference games will be played on Friday, September 17th. Syracuse will host this year’s ACC Championship 4-5. And on November 7 at JS Coyne Stadium.

2021 ACC Field Disc Predicted Goal Order

1. North Carolina (6) – 48
2. Boston College – 30
3. Virginia (1) – 25
4. Wake Forest – 24
t-5. Duke – 23
t-5. Louisville – 23
t-5. Syracuse – 23
(First place votes)

2021 Preseason All-ACC Field Hockey Team

Margo Carlin, F, Jr., Boston College
Fusine Govaert, M, Gr., Boston College
Jonna Kennedy, GK, Senior, Boston College
Leah Crouse, M, Sr., Duke
Alli Bitting, M, senior, Louisville
Charlie Van Oirschot, M, So., Louisville
Erin Matson, F, Sr., North Carolina
Meredith Sholder, M, senior, North Carolina
Charlotte de Vries, F, Jr., Syracuse
Amber Ezechiels, B, senior, Virginia
Meike Lanckohr, M, Jr., Wake Forest