On a wet night at Dail Soccer Stadium, the NC State women’s soccer team defeated Northwestern by a score of 1-0 to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Wolfpack (11-6-3) was the more dominant of the two teams, firing off 11 shots in total; however, thanks to six saves by its goalkeeper, Northwestern (10-5-4) was consistently a threat to steal the game away from the Wolfpack.
NC State entered the game on a two-game losing streak, but for head coach Tim Santoro, the losses didn’t play into the team’s mind before the game.
“We have a lot of experience in the NCAA Tournament over the last three years,” Santoro said. “The ACC is what it is, it’s the hardest thing to play in, the league is tough. We don’t let that affect us in the NCAA Tournament.”
The Wolfpack nearly opened the scoring 20 minutes in but was stumped by a brilliant save from Northwestern’s goalkeeper. A corner fell to the far side where junior midfielder Paige Griffiths’ point-blank shot was stopped to keep the game at 0-0.
Despite the wet conditions, the Wolfpack looked crisp on the ball with a number of intricate passes leading to good chances. Even with these good chances, the Wolfpack struggled to put the ball in the back of the net.
“[The field] feels a little fast,” Santoro said. “Northwestern has always been a really defensive team. They get a lot of players behind the ball. We know they were going to be tough to break down, but I thought we were pretty comfortable most of the game.”
Senior defender Hannah Keogh had the best chance of the half as the defender lofted a free kick into the box and on target, forcing an impressive save out of the backpedaling goalkeeper.
The two teams went into the half locked at 0-0. NC State was the better of the two sides in the first half with five corners and five shots compared to Northwestern’s single shot and no corner kicks. The Wolfpack was stumped on three occasions by Northwestern’s Mackenzie Wood in the first half.
Northwestern got off to a strong start in the second half, tripling the Wildcats’ first-half shot total within the first five minutes. However, they were unable to find the back of the net thanks to some solid goalkeeping by Wootten.
The Wolfpack finally broke through 30 minutes into the second half. Griffiths’ effort was put out for a corner on an amazing save by Wood. The Wolfpack then scored on the resulting corner with freshman defender Jenna Butler connecting on Keoghs’ cross to give the Wolfpack the 1-0 lead.
“It means a lot to be able to help my team advance to the next round,” Butler said. “ I wasn’t expecting it but I’m glad that I was able to provide the goal that allows us to move on to California.”
The game ended 1-0 but easily could have had a handful of more goals if it was not for the impressive performance of Wood in the Northwestern net who made six saves on the night.
The Wolfpack will be back in action for the second round of the NCAA Tournament where the team will face the winner of Santa Clara and Milwaukee.
“As a team, we are just ready to take of whoever is there,” Butler said. “We are just excited to be able to go to California and move on, so whoever is there we will prepare for.”
