This afternoon, the University of North Carolina communications office announced the winners of the Patterson Medal, which is an award given to athletes based off of their athletic achievements. The athletes that receive the award have to have played at least three seasons of sports for the school, and it is an award honoring sportsmanship and leadership. This year, the two athletes that were awarded this prestigious honor were field hockey national champion and National Player of the Year Ashley Hoffman, and 2017 national champion and two-time Academic All-American Luke Maye.
Ashley Hoffman started all 96 games of her UNC career in field hockey, and has won three ACC championships and a national title. She won the Honda Sport Award, which is awarded to the country’s top player, was first-team All-America, ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and was also the Most Valuable Player in the ACC as well as the NCAA Tournaments. She is the first player ever to sweep the Player of the Year / MVP awards in both the ACC and the NCAA in the same season. Hoffman is now the fifth field hockey player to not only have her jersey retired, but to win the Patterson Medal as well.
Luke Maye’s career is one that almost needs no introduction — arriving on campus as a walk-on, he worked his way to a scholarship and was the hero in the 2017 Elite Eight game against Kentucky. He went on to become the Most Outstanding Player in the regional, and helped lead the Tar Heels to their sixth NCAA championship, and seventh national championship overall. As far as the rest of his resume goes, he earned first-team All-ACC and third-team All-America honors his junior year, and was second-team all-conference in 2019. He won the ACC Player of the Week award five times, with only Antwan Jamison, Tyler Hansbrough, and Phil Ford earning the award more during their careers. Finally, Maye is a four-time Academic All-ACC honoree, and won Academic All-American honors in 2018 and 2019.
Luke Maye is now the sixth Tar Heel under Roy Williams to win the Patterson Award, joining the company of Tyler Hansbrough, Tyler Zeller, Marcus Paige, Justin Jackson, and Joel Berry II. Both Maye and Hoffman have made outstanding contributions to their respective sports, and the University of North Carolina as a whole. Their medals will be presented to them during the 2019-20 school year. Congratulations to both of these exceptional individuals!