The Takeaway Check, Issue #119
Chloe Humphrey: The face of college lacrosse
Chloe Humphrey was the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2023. Less than a week before North Carolina’s season opener, however, the program announced she would miss the entire season with a foot injury.
The world, and Humphrey, would have to wait for her debut, but the wait was well worth it.
“It showed me how important patience is,” Humphrey said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay. “There’s always something greater coming, even in your darkest times.”
In the two seasons since then, Humphrey has dazzled lacrosse fans. She’s scored 199 goals in two years (including a freshman-record 90 in 2025 only to follow that up by tying the NCAA single-season goals record with 109 in 2026). She won the 2025 and 2026 IWLCA Player of the Year Award as well as the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player. She also won the Tewaaraton Award as a freshman and was a finalist this year.
This May, leading up to the NCAA Tournament, she was the talk of the town, featured on some of the biggest media platforms in the world.
In the article in The Wall Street Journal, Gay compared her not only to women’s lacrosse legends like Jen Adams, Taylor Cummings and Charlotte North, but to iconic athletes like Michael Jordan and Caitlin Clark because “she’s become a transformational figure for her sport.”
She was featured on the ESPN docuseries “Game On: Journey to the NCAA Championship”, which compared her to Jordan, Mia Hamm, and Erin Matson, all of whom not only played at North Carolina (like Humphrey) but went on to be considered the greatest of all time in their respective sports (maybe like Humphrey?). In a paired article on the ESPN website — with bylines from Madeline Rundlett and Jeremy Schaap — the comparisons were ever-present.
Tar Heels head coach Jane Levy was asked if she had ever seen anybody like Humphrey.
“Nope,” she said. “Not a chance.”
Humphrey herself didn’t back down from the perception.
“I love it,” she says. “I love that challenge. And I don’t feel it as pressure. It’s a privilege to be able to elevate the game. And especially with the sport now being in the Olympics, there are going to be a lot more eyes on the sport, which is just absolutely incredible. And it is getting the attention that it finally deserves.”
I saw it myself when I covered the Atlas Cup at USA Lacrosse headquarters in October 2025. Entering the main office building, which also features the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum on the first floor, there are floor-to-ceiling glass panels surrounding the main door. Each of the four panels features a wrap of an American player, one of which is Humphrey.
Her position in the game isn’t just hyperbolic statements from the media, however. Some of the best players in the sport also speak glowingly not just about her as a player or even person but about her star potential.
In an article I wrote for the New England Lacrosse Journal, I spoke with superstars Charlotte North and Izzy Scane — her teammates with the National Team and the winners of the previous four Tewaaraton Awards — about getting to play with Humphrey, and they couldn’t hide their excitement.
“She’s amazing. She’s such a phenomenal player,” said North. “To get to be around her and be on the same team as her is awesome. She’s just so dynamic. I’ve gotten to call a few of her games in college, being on the ESPN (broadcast) team, and she’s just awesome. I love watching her play. I’m lucky to be on the same team as her, and watch her do her thing and get to be out there on the field with her.”
“She’s just one of those players (that) you’re in awe of watching,” Scane said. “You know if you toss the ball near her, she’ll get a piece of it and she’ll put it in the back of the net.
“Someone like that, especially a little bit younger, she’s so much fun to be around,” Scane added. “Just to see her continue to improve, and knowing how much longer she has in the college game and through the World Games to continue to improve as a player, where she’s at now is insane. To give her four more years of playing, I’m excited to see how she does.”
The sentiment — and GOAT status — is echoed by her college teammates.
“I think she’s going to be the greatest lacrosse player of all time,” Tar Heels midfielder Julia O’Connor said. “And not even that, the greatest person to come out of the sport of lacrosse.”
At the Atlas Cup — a round-robin tournament between the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Haudenosaunee which the United States was crowned champions and Humphrey the tournament MVP — I asked Humphrey what it was like looking back on the incredible year she had.
She told me she had been watching the sports’ best for years on TV and couldn’t believe she was on the field next to them.
“I can’t even process all of it. I have to pinch myself,” she said. “I think lacrosse is just the gift that keeps on giving. Whatever you put into this sport, it will give back to you. I have been so honored to have all of these experiences and have just the most incredible support around me.”
Humphrey has put hours of work at home in her back yard with her sisters growing up in Darien, Connecticut and on a concrete wall next to the stadium at North Carolina.
The sport is definitely giving back to her, and she is redirecting it straight back to the fans, particularly to the young girls idolizing her.
Recent Stories:
“Middlebury, Wesleyan Advance to NCAA DIII Women’s Championship” (USA Lacrosse Magazine)
“How champion Pingree’s growth in NESLL this season mirrors league’s” (New England Lacrosse Journal)
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