The ten best UNC sports moments of 2025

Today marks the first day of 2026. While every new year is a chance to look forward at what’s ahead, it’s also a chance to reflect on the year that just was. Since we’re at this inflection point, I thought it be nice to do some of that reflecting.

While there’s many moments to choose from and plenty of debate to be had, I thought I’d give my countdown of the biggest and best moment from 2025 as far as North Carolina Tar Heels’ athletics was concerned.

10. Softball returns to the big dance

In recent years, softball at the college level has exploded in popularity, with the Women’s College World Series becoming of the bigger college events of the late spring/early summer. UNC has largely been absent from that, having missed every NCAA Tournament since 2019. However, there’s some hope on the horizon now, as second year coach Megan Smith led Carolina back to the tournament thanks to a 40-17 record in 2025.

9. A marquee win for men’s basketball

The part of 2025 that came as part of the 2024-25 season was not an especially fun one for UNC men’s basketball. However, the part that came from the 2025-26 season went quite well. That included one of the best non-conference wins that the Tar Heels have had in ages, as they beat Kansas in the Jayhawks’ first ever visit to Chapel Hill.

8. David Ford wins PGA Tour University

Fighting your way to the PGA Tour can be one of the toughest sports to go pro in for athletes immediately out of college. Fortunately for Tar Heel golfer David Ford, he got to take the express lane there. Ford finished in first place in the PGA Tour’s ranking competition for college golfers, meaning he got his PGA Tour card straight out of college and didn’t have to battle his way through the minor league tours to get there.

7. Ethan Strand sets college mile record

He’ll be making another appearance in a bit, but Ethan Strand had one of the best ever careers for a UNC runner. That included him running the fastest ever time by a college runner in the mile, and one of the fastest times ever at that distance, period.

6. Dramatic rally vs. State in women’s basketball

Duke’s been a good team too of late and those games always mean a lot, but in women’s basketball, NC State has been the bigger measuring stick for UNC lately. The Wolfpack have a Final Four and a couple ACC titles in their recent history and have regularly gotten high NCAA Tournament seeds. Beating them has been a good achievement, and the Tar Heels got a huge victory over them last basketball season, coming back for a win after being down as many as six in the final minutes.

5. Baseball wins ACC Tournament

While the NCAA Tournament run ended on a downer, UNC baseball was excellent in 2025 going 46-15. The crowning achievement of their year ended up being a ACC crown, as they crushed a good Clemson squad to win the conference title.

4. Dramatically downing the Blue Devils

A win over Duke at any time is fun, but as the men’s basketball team taught us in 2022, doing so in an NCAA Tournament is extra fun. This year, field hockey got in on that action.

The NCAA Tournament bracket wound up matching up the Tar Heels and Blue Devils in the quarterfinals, with a Final Four berth on the line. While UNC took a lead in the second quarter, Duke rallied to tie the game up at one in the fourth and sending it to sudden death overtime. Take it away from there, Sanne Hak.

3. Another tennis singles championship

Having already once been part of a doubles team that made a national final, UNC women’s tennis’ Reese Brantmeier brought a singles championship back to Chapel Hill.

Brantmeier became just the second ever Tar Heel, following Jamie Loeb, to win the NCAA Women’s Singles championship, beating Passola Folch of Cal in straight sets in the championship match.

2. Twin titles on the track

Track & Field at UNC should have the ingredients for being a regular contending program, but they haven’t been able to consistently be great. In 2025 though, two Tar Heels brought home individual honors to the school and program.

Ethan Strand, making his second appearance on this list, and Makayla Paige each won a national championship at the 2025 NCAA Indoor Championships, winning the men’s 3000m and the women’s 800m respectively,

1. Another addition to the national championship trophy case

Dean Smith famously had the quote about UNC being a “women’s soccer school” as opposed to a basketball one, due to all the championships the women’s soccer team won. If you were to apply that logic to the current day, one of the programs on the shortlist for that honor would be women’s lacrosse.Coach Jenny Levy’s teams have been to six final fours in the last decade, and had won four national championships since 2013. This year, they made that total five.

Led by historic seasons from sisters Chloe and Ashley Humphrey, the Tar Heels’ women’s lacrosse team went 22-0 and finished off the perfect season by beating Northwestern for the national championship.

What did I miss? What was too high or too low? Feel free to leave your own lists in the comments!