Pirates Host No. 1 North Carolina on Wednesday Evening

Game 12: East Carolina (4-7, 2-1 AAC) vs. No. 1 North Carolina (12-0, 7-0 ACC)
Date	Wednesday, April 9
Time	6:00 p.m. (ET)
Location	Greenville, N.C. (Johnson Stadium)
Media Coverage	Live Stats: StatBroadcast Stream: ESPN+
Fact Book	2025 Lacrosse Fact Book
Social Media	Twitter: @e culax Instagram: @eculax

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina lacrosse team welcomes No. 1 to town on Wednesday evening as the North Carolina Tar Heels come to Johnson Stadium for a 6 p.m. contest.

The game is free to attend for fans and with perfect weather expected should prove an opportunity to break the Johnson Stadium attendance record for lacrosse of 585 from the program's inaugural game in 2018. For fans unable to attend, the game will be available for streaming on ESPN+ with Zach Berly and Gabby Sartori on the call.

Wednesday's game will be the program's first against the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. North Carolina is the newly unanimous top team in both the IWLCA Coaches Poll and the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll. The Pirates have previously faced off with teams ranked as high as No. 2 (also North Carolina) and have seven previous meetings with top 10 opponents (0-7).

Last Time Out
The Pirates earned an important road victory over Old Dominion on Saturday to move back over .500 in conference play at 2-1. Riley Matthiesen and Kayla Wilkes recorded hat tricks in the game to lead the Pirates offensively while Jaime Behar got the win in goal with six saves on the day. The ECU offense was particularly efficient in the game with 12 goals on 14 shots on goal.

Scouting the Tar Heels
North Carolina looks the part of a National Championship favorite with their 12-0 record, including a host of commanding victories, including four wins over ranked foes by 10-or-more goals. The team is led offensively by a dynamic sister duo of Chloe and Ashley Humphrey who have 67 points each. Chloe has 52 goals and 15 assists while Ashley has 19 goals and 48 assists on the year, pacing eight Tar Heels with 15-or-more points. Defensively, it's been a team effort with three players posting 12 caused turnovers while Betty Nelson has gotten the majority of run in goal with 73 saves to just 67 goals allowed. On the draw, five UNC players have 15-or-more draw controls with Kaleigh Harden leading the way at 34.

Series History
The Pirates and Tar Heels have met three times since 2019, including in each of the last two seasons, all three contests going to UNC. Last year, it was a 14-6 contest in Chapel Hill in which Carolina Godine notched a hat trick for North Carolina while Erin Gulden and Carli Johnston led the Pirates with two apiece. Behar made 11 saves in the game.

Ranked Woes
Entering Wednesday, the Pirates are 0-24 all time against ranked opponents.

Weekly Honors
Matthiesen was named to the American Athletic Conference's Weekly Honorable Mention list after scoring five goals with three ground balls and an assist in two games last week.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jaime Behar

Erin Gulden

Carli Johnston

Riley Matthiesen

Kayla Wilkes

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