Who is Chloe Humphrey? Meet North Carolina women's lacrosse's star freshman attacker

USA Today

25-05-2025

Who is Chloe Humphrey? Meet North Carolina women's lacrosse's star freshman attacker
North Carolina women's lacrosse is one win away from writing the final chapter of its historic season: an undefeated season with a national championship trophy.
It would be the second undefeated national championship in the last four NCAA women's lacrosse tournaments. But unlike the Tar Heels' championship in 2022, their third in program history, the star power and catalyst behind North Carolina's historic season isn't a veteran player. Instead, it's a freshman.
That freshman has been Chloe Humphrey, who has stepped up and helped North Carolina put together the No. 1 scoring offense in the country.
REQUIRED READING: North Carolina vs. Florida women's lacrosse semifinal score: Chloe Humphrey sends Tar Heels to final
The Darien, Connecticut native enters Sunday's game vs. No. 2 Northwestern ranked fourth in the country in total goals and seventh in goals per game with 86 and 4.10, respectively. She'll be tasked with keeping the Tar Heels' scoring party alive on Sunday when going head-to-head with Northwestern's Madison Taylor, who is the nation's leading scorer.
The Tar Heels and Wildcats are slated for a noon ET start at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts in the national championship game on Sunday.
Here's what to know about Chloe Humphrey ahead of Sunday's national championship game:
Who is Chloe Humphrey?
Chloe Humphrey is a star attacker on the North Carolina women's lacrosse team, and one of the top scorers (and freshmen) in the country.
After being a highly touted recruit for the Tar Heels, the 5-foot-4 attacker redshirted her true freshman season with a stress reaction foot injury that she sustained just before the season opener.
Much like North Carolina's overall season, Humphrey is having a freshman campaign for the record books. Back on May 8, Humphrey became the first female freshman to be named a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award, which is handed out annually to the top men's and women's college lacrosse players in the country.
Humphrey's heroics with the Tar Heels reached a new level in North Carolina's semifinal win against Florida on Friday. At the 2:34 mark of the second quarter, Humphrey surpassed Tar Heel great Jamie Ortega for the most goals in a single season by a North Carolina player with her then-fourth goal of the game.
Humphrey entered Friday's game third all-time in North Carolina's record book for most goals in a single season and three goals behind tying Ortega, who then owned the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on the list with 82 goals in 2021 and 81 goals in 2019.
"It's a dream come true to play here. That's incredible. I didn't know that," Humphrey said on the ESPNU broadcast on surpassing Ortega. "That all goes to all my teammates putting it on my stick. Think a lot of those were assisted goals. They just set me up so easily."
Humphrey caused headaches for Florida's defense for the entirety of the afternoon as she converted a goal on each of her final seven shots of the game. Another reason was Humphrey's speed up and down the field and around the crease, as highlighted by her second goal of the game, which came on a dump over the shoulder of Florida goalie Elyse Finnelle from behind the cage.
"She is so creative. She can score from anywhere," North Carolina coach Jenny Levy said of Humphrey on the ESPNU broadcast after the Florida win. "... She is a really hard matchup and she is going to beat you in different ways. ... It's hard to take everything away from her. She's special."
Chloe Humphrey lacrosse recruiting
As noted by her profile page on North Carolina's website, Humphrey was ranked the No. 1 recruit in the 2023 recruiting class by Inside Lacrosse. Additionally, she was named the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards National Girls Lacrosse Player of the Year in 2023.
"I always dreamed about being a Tar Heel since fifth grade," Humphrey said in an interview with Carolina Insider.
In her senior season at Darien High School, Humphrey racked up 103 goals on the year while recording 38 assists, 30 caused turnovers, 42 ground balls and 69 draw controls.
Chloe Humphrey stats
Humphrey enters Sunday's game leading North Carolina in scoring with 86 goals on the season and ranked second in total points on the year at 113. She has scored at least five goals in nine of the Tar Heels' 21 games this season, while recording a hat trick in 17 of them.
Here's a game-by-game breakdown of Chloe Humphrey's stats in the NCAA Tournament:
vs. Clemson (Second Round): Five points on four goals and an assist on 10 shots with three ground balls and one caused turnover
Five points on four goals and an assist on 10 shots with three ground balls and one caused turnover vs. Princeton (Quarterfinals): Four points on two goals and two assists on 10 shots with two caused turnovers and a ground ball
Four points on two goals and two assists on 10 shots with two caused turnovers and a ground ball vs. Florida (Semifinal): Seven points on seven goals on nine shots with three ground balls and a cause turnover
Chloe Humphrey sisters
Chloe Humphrey is not the only Humphrey listed on North Carolina's roster, and in fact, is the youngest of the Humphreys.
The other two Humphreys on the Tar Heels' roster are, of course, graduate student midfielder Nicole Humphrey (the oldest) and graduate student attacker Ashley Humphrey (the middle child).
Nicole Humphrey returned to the Tar Heels in the fall after spending last season at USC, where she earned her master's degree but did not play due to an injury. A national championship on Sunday would be the second for both Nicole, who was on the Tar Heels' third national title team in 2022.
As for Ashley Humphrey, she has served as the facilitator of the Tar Heels' offense this season, as she leads the country with 86 assists. Ashley Humphrey was also named a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award. She began her career at Stanford before transferring to North Carolina ahead of the 2024 season.