Carolina 8th in final 2022-2023 Learfield Director’s Cup standings
This is the Tar Heels' fourth consecutive top-10 finish and seventh in the past eight years of the all-sports competition.
NCAA championships by field hockey in the fall and women’s tennis in the spring provided 100 points apiece to lead UNC-Chapel Hill to eighth place in the final 2022-23 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings, the Tar Heels’ fourth consecutive top-10 finish and seventh in the past eight years of the all-sports competition.
Carolina amassed a total of 1,068 points in 17 sports. Stanford regained the title, its 26th in the 29-year history of the competition, after Texas had won the previous two seasons (UNC was the inaugural winner in 1993-94).
Stanford totaled 1,412 points. Texas, Ohio State, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Carolina, LSU and Southern California finished second through 10th.
The eighth-place finish is Carolina’s 24th season in the top 10. Only Stanford and Florida (with 29 apiece) have more.
The Tar Heels have accounted for 24 of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 48 all-time finishes in the top 10.
Carolina’s field hockey team won its 10th national championship, completing an unbeaten and untied season at 21-0-0 with a 2-1 win over Northwestern. It was Karen Shelton’s 10th NCAA title as head coach and National Player of the Year and Final Four MVP Erin Matson’s fourth as a player. Matson was named head coach in January following Shelton’s retirement after 42 seasons directing the Tar Heel program.
The women’s tennis team, led by head coach Brian Kalbas and National Player of the Year Fiona Crawley, capped a 35-1 season with a 4-1 win over NC State in the NCAA championship match. It was the women’s tennis team’s first NCAA title, becoming the eighth Tar Heel men’s or women’s program to claim an NCAA championship.
It was the 12th time Carolina has won multiple NCAA championships in the same season (1981-82, 1989-90, 1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2012-13, 2015-16 and 2022-23).
The two national championship teams were among six at Carolina to finish in the top five and nine to finish in the top 10 this year.
Read more at GoHeels.com.
