A goal in overtime from senior Tanya Cain garnered the Pack its first conference win with a final score of 2-1 against the Clemson Tigers on Thursday. State is now 1-5-2 in the conference and has revived its window of opportunity to get into the ACC Tournament.
“This whole season we had our backs turned to the goal, so it’s really good to come out with a win,” Cain said. “It’s our first conference win and we’re going to celebrate to the fullest. It’s wonderful to just to get a win. Ties are great because you don’t lose but it’s always better to get a win.”
N.C. State walked into a must-win situation where the Pack would have to take its match and Florida State would have to lose theirs to get into the final spot for the conference tournament. The next two matches against Boston College and Duke have now turned into must win matches for the Pack, as well.
The Pack came out firing early on in the match with shots on goal from Bronson and Berger within the first five minutes of the match, but neither could complete the plays.
After State’s surge of shots on goal, Clemson began to show aggressiveness by earning a penalty kick from Vanessa Laxgang that hit the Wolfpack wall. Clemson finally broke through the wall of the Pack’s defense with a goal by Maddy Elder down the middle of the net off of an assist from Rachel Heard in the 17th minute.
“We knew that Clemson was going to come out with a lot of fight,” Coach Steve Springthorpe said. “We’re two teams that are battling to try and get some sort of win.
“Credit goes to Clemson for that first half. They were organized, they went forward, and they made some definite challenges for our team, and our team responded in the second half.”
In the second half, State turned up its intensity on the offensive end by attempting 12 shots on goal. The first four were unsuccessful but the Pack finally broke though with a goal from freshman Shelli Spamer off of a free kick. It was her first ACC goal and her second on the season.
“I take free kicks all the time and it was very frustrating because I never make them so it was really big for me,” Spamer said. “It was my first ACC goal so it was a big one.”
State and Clemson went back and forth with a plethora of shot attempts with no avail until the final buzzer rang for regulation.
In overtime, it seemed as if Clemson would gain the momentum after an official made a wrong out-of-bounds call with six minutes left, giving the Tigers possession. They missed the attempt off of a Kearns save and the Pack took control from then on.
Cain scored the game-winning goal in the 96th minute of the match with a shot that sailed over goalkeeper Lauren Arnold and settled at the back of the net, assisted by freshman Stephanie Bronson.
“We were knocking on the door the whole game,” Cain said. “We were all fighting hard. We were down 1-0 and we came back. We just wanted to get it done in overtime. We were all playing together and it just happened for us, thank God.”
