North Carolina, the reigning NCAA Division I Field Hockey National Champion, holds the top spot in the preseason edition of the Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll, and the Atlantic Coast Conference leads all leagues with each of its seven teams ranked among the nation’s top 18.
The Tar Heels received 31 of a possible 33 first-place votes and finished with 821 total points. Duke picked up the two other first-place votes and placed third in the preseason rankings. Wake Forest checks in at No. 10 to give the ACC three teams among the top 10.
Virginia, Louisville and Boston College follow at spots No. 11-13, respectively, and Syracuse holds the No. 18 spot.
ACC teams have won 19 of the 38 NCAA field hockey titles, including 12 of the last 17, and at least one ACC squad has advanced to the national championship game in 19 of the last 20 years. Four ACC teams earned bids to the 2018 NCAA Field Hockey Championship, marking the sixth consecutive year that the field included at least four ACC teams.
The ACC’s 2019 field hockey season officially gets underway Friday Aug. 30, with all seven league teams set to play non-conference matches.
2019 Penn Monto/NFHCA Division I National Coaches Poll
Ranked by total points; First-place votes in parenthesis
1. North Carolina, 821 (31)
2. Maryland, 746
3. Duke, 687 (2)
4. Connecticut, 665
5. Princeton, 664
6. Harvard, 587
7. Michigan, 518
8. Iowa, 511
9. Penn State, 491
10. Wake Forest, 480
11. Virginia, 425
12. Louisville, 413
13. Boston College, 313
14. Ohio State, 310
15. Northwestern, 298
16. Delaware, 296
17. Saint Joseph’s, 292
18. Syracuse, 283
19. Rutgers, 260
20. Liberty, 246
21. Stanford, 224
22. Albany, 178
23. Boston University, 127
24. Maine, 109
25. William & Mary, 84
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Chris Graham
