The 2023 ACC Women’s Lacrosse season begins this weekend

Weekly ACC Notes

– The 27th season of women’s ACC lacrosse opens the regular season on Friday. The league will expand to 10 programs this year as Clemson plays in its inaugural season. The Tigers open Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at home against Wofford on the ACC Network. All 10 ACC teams are in action over the weekend.

Six ACC programs were ranked in the top 20 in the IL Women/IWLCA preseason poll: North Carolina (1), Boston College (3), Syracuse (5), Duke (11), Virginia (13) and Notre Dame (16) . That’s the most in the National League. In the national main match of the opening weekend, No. 5 Orange hosts No. 4 Northwestern on Saturday at the JMI Wireless Dome in a rematch of the 2022 NCAA quarterfinals.

Reigning national champion North Carolina is the early season favorite to win the ACC Championship. The Tar Heels have won six straight ACC titles.

18 of the 33 members of the 2022 All-ACC Team return, including eight starters. ACC Freshman of the Year Rachel Clark of Virginia, a second-team All-ACC selection, is among the returners.

20 ACC All-Americans from 2022 return this season, including three starters: midfielder Belle Smith (BC), attack/draw Maddie Jenner (Duke) and forward Meaghan Tyrrell (Syracuse).

Per Inside Lacrosse, six of the nation’s top 10 impact transfers came to ACC schools in the 2023 season: A Lauren Figura (Saint Joseph’s to UNC), D Kacy Hogarth (Maryland to Virginia), G Emily Lamparter (Maryland to Clemson), M Ella Little (UNC to Clemson) , D Annika Meyer (Johns Hopkins to Virginia) and M Sophie Student (Virginia Tech to UNC).

With the addition of Clemson, ACC teams will play a nine-game conference schedule this season.

The Tar Heels finished with an unblemished 22-0 record and won the third national championship in program history.

With UNC and BC, the ACC had at least two teams compete on NCAA Championship weekend for the 17th time in league history, including the fourth straight.

The ACC led all conferences with six teams in the 2022 NCAA field (UNC, BC, Syracuse, Duke, Notre Dame, Virginia). UNC (1), BC (3) and Syracuse (5) were all top five seeds in the tournaments.

The ACC had at least one team in the semifinals for the 32nd straight tournament and 36th time overall, and had a team in the championship game for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.

For the third straight tournament, three ACC teams advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals.

North Carolina won its sixth consecutive ACC title, matching the ACC women’s lacrosse record for consecutive titles held by Maryland from 2009-2014.

Three ACC head coaches rank in the top 10 active Division I head coaches in wins: UNC’s Jenny Levy (3rd, 395), Virginia’s Julie Myers (5th, 348) and Duke’s Kerstin Kimel (6th, 332).

The ACC’s 10 head coaches have won a combined 1,747 career games. Seven have won at least 100 games in their careers.