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Erin Matson strode up to the penalty hash while Brooke Borzymowski crouched down, ready. For the past 16 minutes of Friday’s game, UNC pressed but couldn’t break Syracuse’s defense. Finally, a penalty stroke caused by Laura Graziosi bumping into Eva Smolenaars put Matson, the four-time Atlantic Coast Conference Offensive Player of The Year, in an optimal scoring position: just 7-yards away with Borzymowski — a freshman goalie playing in her second postseason game — right in front of her.

As Matson swiped up her stick head and knocked the ball back into the right side of the cage, she started a hat trick feat that took 11 minutes to complete and put UNC (12-6, 4-2 ACC) up 3-0 at the end of the second period. In a 4-1 loss where almost everything went wrong for Syracuse (13, 5, 4-2 ACC), to having 11 corners and only capitalizing on one, to not scoring off that last corner until two minutes left in the fourth period, Syracuse again failed to beat UNC — the team they’ve only beat once in ACC Tournament play since 2014.

“They’re national champions,” head coach Ange Bradley said. “It’s as simple as they came out full throttle.”

In 2015, Syracuse could’ve won the ACC Tournament, could’ve had a perfect season, if it didn’t lose 2-1 in the semifinals to UNC. The Orange would beat the Tar Heels 4-2 and win the NCAA Tournament title later that year. In the years since, SU entered a rebuilding stage and couldn’t beat UNC, who has won the three consecutive national championships with a high-octane offense that included Matson.

On Oct. 1, however, SU’s defense silenced the senior forward — who couldn’t generate a single shot on goal in the 5-0 Syracuse win. After the game, though, Carolin Hoffmann said the blowout didn’t necessarily matter and that the Orange would have to defeat UNC again in the ACC Tournament.

Going into the tournament’s semifinals, things seemed to align. SU corrected their corner mistakes and scored four out of its five goals on the set piece, beat Duke by four. And UNC head coach Karen Shelton — the winningest coach in collegiate field hockey history — wouldn’t be on the Tar Heels’ sidelines because of a red card against Wake Forest yesterday.

Syracuse and UNC deadlocked the first period on Friday, but Matson began to string together her third hat trick in UNC’s last four games after she hit the penalty shot on Borzymowski in the second period. The Tar Heels’ key offensive cog nearly nine minutes later corralled the ball off a Sienna Pegram mis-hit, took two steps to twist herself around Tess Queen and reversed a chip shot in between Borzymowski’s leg pads.

Matson notched her third goal of the game, her hat trick and her ACC-leading 26th goal two minutes later. Hannah Griggs penetrated into the right side of Syracuse’s shooting circle and sent a pass into Matson on the baseline while SJ Quigley stood behind the UNC forward’s back. Matson reversed hit the ball, and Borzymowski’s elbow pushed the shot into the back of the cage as both Matson and Florine van Boetzelaer swooped in. Matson then rose up with a clenched right fist and embraced Griggs, celebrating her hat trick

In the fourth period, eight minutes in, Matson streaked down the field while Charlotte de Vries and Eefke van den Nieuwenhof trailed behind. Matson threaded a pass into wide-open Griggs and finished the game with three goals and an assist. After the buzzer sounded, Syracuse players trudged back to their bench while Matson wrapped her left arm around Griggs among a mob of UNC players near the left corner of J.S. Coyne Stadium.

For the last four years, the two seniors and the rest of the Tar Heels have placed themselves in position for perennial title runs, winning each ACC Tournament title since 2017. And since then, too, Syracuse has never been able to surpass them.

Published on November 5, 2021 at 9:17 pm

Contact Christopher: [email protected] | @chrisscargs