CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – When Scottie Rose Growney, Ally Mastroianni and Jamie Ortega arrived on North Carolina’s campus as freshman recruits in 2017, they, naturally, had zero career losses against bitter rival Duke.

Five seasons later, nothing’s changed.

Growney scored a team-high five goals and Mastroianni and Ortega added four goals each as No. 1 UNC cruised past No. 5 Duke 18-4 in a ranked women’s lacrosse matchup Thursday at Dorrance Field.

With the win, the Tar Heels (15-0, 8-0 ACC) clinched the outright ACC regular season title and secured the No. 1 overall seed in next week’s ACC tournament at Notre Dame. Their top seeding status also ensures that, if they reach the ACC  title game, they’ll host it in Chapel Hill on May 7.

Duke (15-2, 6-2 ACC), which entered Thursday on a nine-game win streak, would have clinched a share of the ACC regular season title and the No. 1 seed with a win. Instead, it will likely be the No. 3 seed.

This 14-goal rout also gave UNC and longtime coach Jenny Levy their 13th consecutive win over Duke and 16th in their last 17th meetings, a streak that’s proven solid regardless of the game-by-game context. Why? Allow Growney and Ortega, fifth-year players yet to see a Duke loss, to theorize.

“There’s that bitterness that you don’t want to lose to Duke no matter what, so you’re going to fight like hell to make sure that you never do,” Growney said. “I think that’s been our mentality: No matter what’s going on, keep the pedal down and just kill them. Score as much as you can.”

“Being able to go undefeated, in that sense, is amazing,” Ortega added.

Levy, a longtime friend of Duke coach Kerstin Kimel, was more measured in her analysis, emphasizing that “the game has no memory” and compartmentalizing that streak as a good run of “one-time hits.”

Still, 13 wins in a row is 13 wins in a row. And speaking of that pesky context the Tar Heels enjoy shrugging off when they’re facing the Blue Devils, this much-hyped regular-season finale had a lot.

It was a collision course between national power UNC, unblemished in record and offensively potent as ever, and in-state foe Duke, leading the country in scoring and off to its best 16-game start since 2006.

Winner takes the No. 1 overall seed in next week’s ACC tournament. Dramatic, no?

Maybe through the first five minutes, as Duke – still riding the high of last Saturday’s home win over then-No. 2 Boston College – parried a 2-0 UNC start with a 2-0 run of its own to tie things in the first.

Then the Tar Heels turned on the jets – and turned Thursday’s 8 p.m. ACC Network contest into a result more befitting of an 11 a.m. Sunday time slot. Usual suspects Growney, Mastroianni and Ortega all found the net during UNC’s 6-0 second-quarter run, while a tough defense rendered high-flying Duke scoreless.

A 9-2 halftime lead was comfortable but not too comfortable enough, apparently, as UNC laid it on thick with an even more convincing second half. Four separate players provided goals during a 4-0 third quarter that pushed UNC’s lead to 13-2, and five stress-free fourth-quarter goals fueled an 18-4 final.

After beating Boston College at home and pushing themselves into some fun late regular season championship contention, Duke “came into the game a little unfocused,” Kimel said. The nation’s top-scoring offense at 17.88 goals per game, it went scoreless across the entire second and third quarters.

“We didn’t execute anywhere close to what I think we’re capable of,” Kimel said.

By game’s end, the box score told the story. UNC had 31 shots to Duke’s 18 and 24 shots on goals to Duke’s 12 while forcing 11 turnovers (Duke forced five) and converting four of six free-position goals. That included Growney’s conversion that gave the Tar Heels a 3-2 lead late in the first quarter.

Pretty undramatic, in terms of go-ahead goals. Not that the Tar Heels were complaining.

“It just means so much,” said Mastroianni, whose five-year record against Duke is also unblemished. “We kept looking at each other in the huddle like, ‘Guys, this is why we come here.’ It’s a night game, it’s beautiful out, we’re wearing Carolina blue and we’re beating up on Duke. It can’t get better than that.”