Erin Matson is the greatest athlete in college field hockey history. She is also on track to become the greatest head coach in college field hockey history after an epic shootout win on Sunday afternoon.
Matson just led the University of North Carolina to her fifth national title in six years. The 23-year-old won four national titles in five years as a player and one as a head coach.
Seriously. Matson is already the head coach of her alma mater at just 23 years old and became the youngest coach to win a national championship… in her first year at the helm of the Tar Heels program!
North Carolina field hockey has won 11 national titles. Matson has been involved with 45% of them.
Erin Matson is already a legend!
Head coach Karen Shelton built a field hockey dynasty in Chapel Hill from 1981 to 2022. She won 10 national titles while in charge of the program. Four of them were in the last five years.
Matson arrived on campus in 2018 and immediately won a national championship as her team’s leading scorer as a freshman. North Carolina then went back-to-back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.
An upset saw Northwestern win it all in 2021. 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 the best in history.
Matson graduated from North Carolina in May. Shelton retired shortly thereafter.
One month after graduation, Matson was tapped to succeed her legendary coach. It was definitely a risk, but it was a risk that was worth taking— clearly.
Three months after being named as Shelton’s successor, it was time for Matson to make history.
She became the youngest head coach in NCAA history on Aug. 25 with a 3-2 win over Michigan. The Tar Heels went on to win another ACC Championship, which was Matson’s sixth in six years.
North Carolina proceeded to win 18 of 21 games en route to the national title with a 23-year-old first-year head coach. Insane!
Matson is going to have a statue on campus when it’s all said and done. Heck, build it now!