When Debbie Yow became the Director of Athletics at N.C. State, her mantra was “Refuse to accept the status quo.”

On Saturday in Tallahassee, the Wolfpack created a new status for itself, the 2013 softball Atlantic Coast Conference Champions.

The Wolfpack improved to 33-18-1 on the season and earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over top-seeded Florida State on Saturday at JoAnne Graf Field. N.C. State, which was swept earlier in the season by the Seminoles in Raleigh, has won 19 of its last 21 games and 12 straight overall.

State won its second ACC championship in the 10 year history of the program, the last coming in 2006 with a title game win over UNC-Chapel Hill.

The lone run of the contest came in the top of the third inning.

Freshman third baseman Lana Van Dyken led off with a base hit to right field. After a foul out by junior catcher Kirsty Grant, reigning ACC Rookie of the Year Renada Davis singled through the middle to advance Van Dyken to second. Senior centerfielder Caitlin Dent then hit a single that deflected off Florida State pitcher Lacey Waldrop and drove in Van Dyken with what would prove to be the deciding run.

Sophomore pitcher Emily Weiman was once again stellar on the mound. The 2013 ACC Pitcher of the Year went the distance, going seven innings while yielding only four hits in the shutout. Weiman struck out five and walked two.

“It’s pretty exciting,” first-year head coach Shawn Rychcik said prior to the Pack’s game Saturday. “I am so happy for my upperclassmen and so happy for everyone here. They have worked so hard and believed in what we have asked them to do all year.

“That’s what we came here to do, to win the championship.”

N.C. State went on a tailspin in March beginning with the Pack falling in a three-game sweep at home to the Seminoles. The losing streak mushroomed to eight games when State dropped all five games in the Cal-State Fullerton-Judy Garmin Classic in Fullerton, CA.

But the Pack was not deterred.

N.C. State immediately began to play better ball, and it started with improved hitting. The Wolfpack have set a school-record this season in home runs with 86 and Davis leads the NCAA with 26 round-trippers during the 2013 campaign.

With the league title, N.C. State will return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007.