The No. 6 NC State men’s soccer team hosts the No. 16 Virginia Tech Hokies Friday, looking for its first ACC win of the season.

The Wolfpack (5-1-0, 0-1-0 ACC) lost its first ACC game on Sept. 8 against No. 1 Wake Forest, but bounced back on Sept. 11 with a 1-0 nonconference win over Quinnipiac. Junior midfielder Gabriel Machado scored the lone goal to lift the Pack in that game.

Since the win against Quinnipiac, the Pack has had two games wiped out by Hurricane Florence. A road trip to Pittsburgh has been rescheduled for Sept. 25 and a game against Stetson was postponed. The two teams are looking to reschedule the match.

The Wolfpack is ranked as high as sixth in the country and is led by Machado, who has three goals so far this year. Sophomore forward Manny Perez also has six points. Perez missed two games, including the battle with Wake Forest, due to a stint with the United States Under-20 Men’s National Team.

Sophomore Leon Krapf has played every minute in net so far for the Pack and has three shutouts to his name this year.

Virginia Tech (5-1-2, 0-1-1 ACC) is a battle-tested team and has two good results to its name in ACC play this year. The Hokies opened conference play against rival No. 10 Virginia and earned a draw. On Sept. 14, Virginia Tech lost to No. 1 Wake Forest 2-1. The Hokies played the last 60 minutes with only 10 men.

Kristo Strickler leads Virginia Tech with five goals, but three other players have scored multiple goals so far this year. Strickler leads the team with 10 points. Mathijs Swaneveld has played every minute in net and has a 0.87 goals against average, .808 save percentage and two shutouts so far this year.

The Wolfpack has already had a challenging schedule so far, highlighted by two high-ranked teams in Wake Forest and Akron, and Virginia Tech will be another test for head coach George Keifer’s squad. The ACC is undoubtedly a gauntlet, but in order for NC State to have the year it wants to, it needs to hold serve at home, even against strong teams like the Hokies.

The Pack hasn’t played in 10 days. The time off could either hurt or help the Wolfpack. There’s not much of a difference between these two teams; whether NC State is fresh and ready to go, or slow to get its feet underneath itself could be the difference in the game.

The game is scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m. at Dail Soccer Stadium in Raleigh and will be broadcast on Fox Sports South.