Virginia Field Hockey Set to Clash With No. 1 North Carolina in Final Four

The Cavaliers will have to knock off the top-ranked Tar Heels in order to reach the NCAA Championship Game for the first time ever

In her fifth and final season playing field hockey at Virginia, one of Laura Janssen's big goals was to defeat North Carolina, something the Cavaliers hadn't done since winning the ACC Championship in 2016. UVA did just that back on October 20th, erasing a 2-0 deficit with a three-goal flurry over a span of just over five minutes to knock off the Tar Heels in a thrilling comeback, snapping a 12-game losing streak in the series. UNC got payback a couple of weeks later, downing Virginia 3-2 in the ACC semifinals. 

Now, if Janssen and the Cavaliers are to achieve their ultimate goal and reach the NCAA Championship Game for the first time in program history, they'll have to find a way to earn another win against their longtime ACC rivals, who are also the No. 1 seed and defending national champions. Virginia and North Carolina are set to do battle in the Final Four on Friday at 12pm at UNC's Karen Shelton Stadium in Chapel Hill. 

"We're the most confident this year I've ever been playing them. It's always been close games. They're a really good team, but so are we," said Janssen, a graduate striker from the Netherlands. "That was honestly one of my biggest goals to beat UNC, so we already did it once and I'd be down to do it twice."

Virginia is making its sixth appearance in the NCAA semifinals and first since 2019. Janssen was a freshman on that 2019 Cavalier squad that went to the Final Four, falling to Princeton 2-1. 

"I don't remember that much from the game," Janssen said of the 2019 semifinals. "I just remember we lost, so I'm keeping that in mind when we play on Friday. I don't want to have that feeling again."

When UVA last advanced to the Final Four, it was a quarterfinal victory over another old rival Maryland that propelled the Cavaliers into the semifinals. Making it back to the Final Four this year required the Hoos to go into College Park and get past the Terrapins, which they did in dominant fashion, crushing No. 4 seed Maryland 4-0 this past Sunday. 

The Cavaliers celebrated their much-deserved win and and their accomplishment of reaching the semifinals, but knew that the job was far from finished. 

"Not done yet - very simple," said UVA interim head coach Ole Keusgen of his message to the team after the win over Maryland. "Just felt the way it was a quarterfinal, nothing more. It was a great win, but it's not the end of the road." 

Keusgen has served as Virginia's acting head coach since October 26th, when head coach Michele Madison went on leave for the rest of the season for undisclosed reasons. Keusgen, who has been on UVA's staff since 2015, has led the Cavaliers to a 3-1 record since taking over as the acting head coach. He attributes that success to the depth of the roster that allows Virginia to press the opponent aggressively for four quarters. 

"We have a lot of good players, gives us a lot of depth in our rotation," Keusgen said. "Whenever the next one comes in, there's no downfall. We can just keep rotating. Especially at the end of the game, that makes a big impact."

Janssen echoed Keusgen's words on Virginia's depth and added that her team's chemistry on and off the field is a big reason why the Cavaliers find themselves in the Final Four. 

"I think we have so much depth to our team. Every single player on this team this year has so much to bring in so many ways," Janssen said. "I feel like we're all very close off the field and that brings us together on the field."

Friday's match will be less about preparation and more about execution, as these two teams know each other and their strategies very well after playing twice in the last month. 

"It's an easy scouting job, but it's also a horrible scouting job because they're the number one team for a reason. They're a great team, but we just played them twice within two weeks so they know us, we know them," Keusgen said. "It comes down to small details that we do right and one-on-one matchups and then we win those little things because pretty much there are no secrets anymore at that point."

The winner of Friday's semifinal will advance to the title game on Sunday at 1:30pm and will take on the winner of the other semifinal between No. 2 Northwestern and No. 3 Duke. 

As for what it will take for the Cavaliers to knock off the Tar Heels, who have won four of the last five NCAA national titles, Laura Janssen had a fairly simple answer to that question: "Everything, everyone."

Virginia's semifinal match against North Carolina on Friday at 12pm will be streamed on ESPN+. 

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