Pirates Travel to No. 1 North Carolina Saturday

Game 9: East Carolina (4-4, 1-1 American) at No. 1 North Carolina (9-1, 7-0 ACC)
Date	Saturday, March 28
Time	12:00 p.m. (ET)
Location	Chapel Hill, N.C. (Dorrance Field)
Media Coverage	Live Stats: StatBroadcast Stream: A CCNX
Game Notes	East Carolina
Social Media	Twitter: @e culax Instagram: @eculax

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The East Carolina lacrosse team hits the road on Saturday for a 12 p.m. date with No. 1 North Carolina at Dorrance Field. The game will be available for streaming on ACCNX and tickets are available for purchase here for those wishing to attend.

Last Time Out
The Pirates won a thriller over Temple, 8-7, on Saturday. Kayla Wilkes scored the game winning goal with 1:36 remaining before the ECU defense stood firm to secure the win. Jaime Behar made 12 saves in the game, including a critical stop with 38 seconds remaining. Grace Moore and Riley Matthiesen led the team scoring with two goals apiece while Sarah Goodison notched a team-high two assists.

Scouting North Carolina
The Tar Heels enter the game at No. 1 in the nation, but do so on the heels of their first loss of the season, an overtime thriller against another top-15 for in Northwestern, 17-16, on Wednesday night. Still, North Carolina has been dominant this season (see a 21-12 win over No. 2 Boston College last weekend), they rank atop the nation in many categories, including scoring, scoring margin and points per game, while ranking highly in most defensive categories as well. Individually, Chloe Humphrey is still the star attraction with 73 points already this season on 52 goals and 21 assists in 10 games. In cage, Betty Nelson has gotten all 10 starts with 37 saves made and a .356 save percentage.

Series History
The Pirates and Tar Heels have met four times over the years, all North Carolina victories. It was a 20-4 result in Greenville last season. The closest the Pirates have gotten was in 2023 when then-No. 5 UNC won a 12-9 contest, erasing an 8-6 ECU lead in the fourth quarter with a 6-0 run in an eight-minute period to take the lead back. The Pirates scored once more with 1:19 remaining but the damage had been done.

Weekly Honors
After making 12 saves in the win over Temple, Jaime Behar was named the American Conference Goalkeeper of the Week on Monday. It is her first player of the week nod this season after three Honorable Mention honors prior. Emma Magazu joined Behar on the weekly honor roll, earning an Honorable Mention spot after four ground balls and two caused turnovers against Temple.

In The Community
The program has made it a focus to strive not only for success on the field and in the classroom, but as representatives in the community. As a team, the Pirates logged 595.5 hours of community service in the fall.

Aspire
Assistant coach Kaelin Hogan graduated from the IWLCA's Aspire Program this spring. According to the organization, "The IWLCA Aspire program was designed to enhance coaches' professional skills, capabilities, and self-awareness through the dynamic blended learning approach."

At the Helm
The Pirates are entering year three under the leadership of head coach Brittany Dipper. Dipper has compiled an 15-26 record with a marked jump from her first to second seasons building anticipation for a successful 2026 campaign.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jaime Behar

Sarah Goodison

Emma Magazu

Riley Matthiesen

Grace Moore

Kayla Wilkes

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