Erin Matson is the greatest athlete in college field hockey history, and at 23 years old, she just led the University of North Carolina to its sixth-straight ACC Championship… in her first year as a head coach.
Matson is only 23 years old. Matson is already the head coach.
Seriously. It’s pretty wild!
Former head coach Karen Shelton built a field hockey dynasty in Chapel Hill from 1981 to 2022. She won 10 national titles while leading the Tar Heels program, with four in the last five years.
Matson arrived on campus in 2018 and won a national championship as the leading scorer as a freshman. North Carolina went back-to-back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. An upset saw Northwestern win it all in 2021, but Matson and company got it right back in 2022.
Even in the year that they did not win the national title, the Tar Heels won the ACC. Matson won five-straight conference championships and four national titles during her five-year playing career.
She graduated as the ACC’s all-time leader in goals and points, and was named the ACC Player of the Year in all five seasons. Her career was one of the best in history.
Matson graduated in May. At that point, Shelton retired.
North Carolina chose to take a risk and tapped Matson to succeed her legendary coach.
Matson made her head coaching debut as the youngest head coach in NCAA history on Aug. 25 with a 3-2 win over Michigan. The Tar Heels went on to win 14 of 17 games in 2023.
They reached the ACC tournament as the top-ranked seed and beat Duke 2-0 in the championship on Friday evening.
Matson won her sixth-straight ACC Championship. Five as a player, one as a coach.
She’s only 23!
North Carolina is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation. Matson will try to lead her alma mater to a national title in her first year out of college, in her first year as head coach. Pretty insane!