UNC caps unbeaten season with women's lax title

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Freshman star Chloe Humphrey scored four goals, older sister Ashley Humphrey had four assists and North Carolina's defense dominated as the Tar Heels capped an unbeaten season with a 12-8 win over Northwestern on Sunday for the program's fourth NCAA women's lacrosse championship.

The top-seeded Tar Heels (22-0) and the second-seeded Wildcats (19-3) both matched their lowest scoring games of the season.

"It's awesome. I'm so happy for my team," North Carolina coach Jenny Levy said. "They played their hearts out all year. They're warriors, they're dogs. Congrats to Northwestern ... they're great competitors and obviously make us better because of what we had to do to beat them."

Levy's freshman daughter Kate scored the goal that put the Tar Heels ahead to stay at 2-1. They became the first mother-daughter combination to win the championship.

Northwestern, the 2023 champion, dropped to 8-3 in championship games.

The game drew a record crowd of 14,423 as part of a Final Four weekend that includes the men. Top-seeded Cornell faces second-seeded Maryland in the men's final on Monday.

Ashley Humphrey finished with 90 assists as the NCAA career leader broke her single-season record. Chloe Humphrey pushed her NCAA freshman record to 90 goals.

"I have no words. It's unbelievable," Ashley Humphrey said. "To be able to do it alongside my sisters is something I could never have dreamed."

Ashley Humphrey spent her first two seasons at Stanford while her sister Nicole, finishing up her career as a reserve, was on North Carolina's 2022 championship team.

But Madison Taylor, who set the NCAA record with 109 goals for Northwestern this season, was limited to four assists.

North Carolina led 7-4 entering the fourth quarter then got three goals in less than a minute, including two from Eliza Osburn nine seconds apart.

Wildcat goalie Delaney Sweitzer had a season-high 17 saves.

Betty Nelson had eight saves for North Carolina.