The ACC field hockey tournament is underway in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Nine-time defending ACC champion North Carolina has the top seed — and a title streak to protect.
The Tar Heels claimed the No. 1 spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
But their grip on the league is anything but uncontested.
Eight teams entered the November 3-6 tournament at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill chasing one championship and an automatic NCAA Division I berth.
For North Carolina, the stakes include a 10th straight ACC tournament title; for the rest of the field, a chance to end that run on the Tar Heels’ home turf.
Tuesday’s opening round has already sent North Carolina and Syracuse into a semifinal showdown and eliminated co-champion Wake Forest.
North Carolina shared the regular-season title with in-state rivals Duke and Wake Forest.
All three finished 6-2 in ACC play, leaving tournament seeding to a tiebreaker.
The Tar Heels earned the top spot on goal differential, followed by No. 2 Wake Forest and No. 3 Duke. North Carolina is chasing its 29th ACC tournament championship at home, but the rest of the field is not clearing a path.
The ACC’s records tell only part of the story. In the league’s Oct. 22 update, all nine teams ranked in the NCAA RPI’s top 25 — a measure of depth beyond the win-loss column.
California was the only team to miss the eight-team tournament after a 2-1 loss to Stanford in its regular-season finale.
This year’s ACC tournament is being held at Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, November 3-6. The winner earns an automatic berth in the NCAA Division I tournament.
Other ACC teams can compete for at-large bids, with the NCAA field announced November 8 at 10 p.m.
Female Athlete News is currently focusing on conferences with teams ranked by the NFHCA throughout the Division I season. Ten conferences receive one automatic NCAA tournament bid apiece, with eight at-large bids completing the 18-team field.
Here are the ACC tournament qualifiers in descending seed order, with updated overall records and regular-season conference records, followed by results and matchups (all times Eastern):
No. 8 Stanford, 10-8 overall (2-6 conference)
No. 7 Virginia, 9-6 overall (3-5 conference)
No. 6 Boston College, 8-9 overall (3-5 conference)
No. 5 Louisville, 10-9 overall (4-4 conference)
No. 4 Syracuse, 10-6 overall (4-4 conference)
No. 3 Duke, 12-4 overall (6-2 conference)
No. 2 Wake Forest, 13-6 overall (6-2 conference)
No. 1 North Carolina, 12-6 overall (6-2 conference)
Game 1 - November 3, 10 a.m. (Final)
No. 1 North Carolina 6, No. 8 Stanford 0
Game 2 - November 3, 12:30 p.m. (Final):
No. 4 Syracuse 4, No. 5 Louisville 3
Game 3 - November 3, 3:30 p.m. (Final, overtime):
No. 7 Virginia 1, No. 2 Wake Forest 0 (OT)
Game 4 - November 3, 6 p.m.
No. 3 Duke vs. No. 6 Boston College
Semifinal 1 - November 4, 1 p.m.
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 4 Syracuse
Semifinal 2 - November 4, 3:30 p.m.
No. 7 Virginia vs. Duke/Boston College winner
Championship - November 6, 3 p.m.
*Simmie Samra is a student-intern at Penn State University.
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