UNC Women's Lacrosse Preview: Improving on Perfection

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — After attaining perfection in 2025 with a 22-0 record and winning the program’s fourth NCAA Championship and eighth ACC Tournament Championship, North Carolina women’s lacrosse looks to run it back. 

Despite losing a third of her scoring production from last season, head coach Jenny Levy — who enters her 31st season as UNC’s head coach — was optimistic about the potential for another championship run when talking with Tommy Ashley and Greg Barnes on the Inside Carolina podcast. However, for the Tar Heels to repeat greatness, they would be accomplishing a program first.

“Our program has never gone back to a Final Four after winning a championship,” Levy told Inside Carolina. “So there’s different types of challenges with expectations, and every year is a new year, although what’s expected is excellence.” 

Though North Carolina lost three of its top four goal scorers from a year ago, it does return last season’s Tewaaraton Award Winner and All-American Chloe Humphrey. The 2026 preseason player of the year tallied a program record 90 goals during her redshirt freshman campaign and nearly doubled UNC’s next closest goal scorer. 

Humphrey will be without her familiar counterparts, however, after her two sisters, Ashley and Nicole, graduated. Ashley far led the Tar Heels in assists last season with 90 — another program record, with the next closest assister, Chloe, who totaled 28. Other key departures from the offense include Olivia Vergano, who scored 39 goals and recorded 14 assists, and Marissa White’s 49 goals and recorded seven assists.

“I think Ashley’s going to be a hard replacement in what she did tactically and how confident she was and her ability to calm down the offense when needed,” Levy said. “I know our offense has a little bit of a different look this year, without Ashley, without Vergano, and obviously, Marissa White transferred up to B.C. So we have some new people in.”

To fill vacancies across the offense, North Carolina signed the top high-school recruiting class in the nation, with 10 incoming freshmen hoping to make an immediate impact. 

Levy told Inside Carolina the priority focus of summer workouts and preseason prep throughout the winter is getting freshmen ready to contribute right away, whether it’s five minutes all season or 20 minutes a game. Levy and her staff hound the fundamentals to incoming freshmen and get them prepped for the physicality of the sport at the next level. 

“We really try to get our newcomers up and running in our program,” Levy said. “They’re all coming in, obviously highly recruited players, but again, they’ve got a lot to learn.” 

Though the Tar Heels lost considerable figures on the offensive side of the ball, they return a significant core on the defensive end. Allowing fewer than seven goals per game last season, North Carolina’s defense is led by USA Lacrosse’s preseason defender of the year, Sam Forrest, and All-American goalie Betty Nelson. 

Coined as the “Velociraptor Defense” from last season’s tenacity, UNC’s veteran defensive unit will likely carry the load if the high-powered offense takes time to warm back up with several new faces. 

“I will say that early in our season last year, our offense would torch our defense,” Levy said. “By the end of the season, our offense couldn’t beat our defense. So it was an interesting build throughout the year.”

The top-ranked Tar Heels will face nine teams ranked in the top 20 of the USA Lacrosse preseason poll. This includes North Carolina’s season opener on the road at No. 20 James Madison on Friday, Feb. 6, and at No. 11 Syracuse on Feb. 13, before the home opener against Ohio State on Feb. 20. 

UNC will have to travel to Durham on April 16 to face No. 17 Duke, before spending the following week in Charlotte for the ACC Tournament.