At the 2013 Atlantic Coast Conference Softball Tournament in Tallahassee, Fla., a metamorphosis was completed.
When N.C. State upended top-seeded Florida State, 1-0, for the ACC championship, buoyed by senior centerfielder Caitlin Dent’s game-winning RBI single which bounced off the Seminole pitcher and around the infield like a pinball, the Pack crossed a threshold it needed to cross. And it came from what seemed to be the most unlikely team.
Dent’s reaction to the fortuitous ricochet was both charming and telling. As the senior reached first base safely, she beamed with a wide smile that exuded happiness at the Wolfpack seizing the lead and expectancy that a dream N.C. State had always insisted it could achieve was actually close to happening.
Dent secured the conference title with a game-winning single and put an elegant face on the achievement that was an appropriate encapsulation of both N.C. State’s season and her collegiate career.
With Dent, the story often tends to drift to her father, Bucky Dent. But what she accomplished in her senior season was remarkable in its own merit. With the RBI single in Tallahassee, along with the walk-off game-winning homer on Senior Day against UNC-Chapel Hill, Dent was able to write her own fairy-tale ending.
After struggling at the plate for her first three seasons in Raleigh, Dent finally put it all together as a senior. Going into the campaign, she had seven home runs in her first three years at State. She doubled that total with 14 for the Pack in 2013.
There were great days at the plate before her heroics during the final home series against the Tar Heels. N.C. State already created some momentum prior to taking two-of-three games against Carolina, but the turnaround began in earnest on that warm day at Dial Softball Stadium.
After losing the opening game against the No. 24 ranked Tar Heels, in which Dent made the final out with runners on first and second base, the Pack began its march towards greatness.
The turnaround had been brewing within the softball program all season. After coming back to Raleigh from Fullerton, Calif. with an eight-game losing streak, the Pack shrugged off its losing record and began to gel at the most opportune time.
The run to the ACC title, which N.C. State head coach Shawn Rychcik aptly labeled “a magic carpet ride” after the NCAA Selection Show, showed that State, if guided by the right people, is a school with the wherewithal to compete for conference and national honors in all sports. In a conference with several schools that are perennial NCAA Tournament teams, the Wolfpack softball team had the least expected of it, yet it was the squad that did the most at N.C. State.
Rychcik walked into a great situation at N.C. State, but his hard work was needed to move the Pack forward. Now that the carpet ride is over in 2013, it must now be expanded on.
After the winning the ACC Tournament, the first-year coach related how he was receiving emails and other forms of correspondence from traveling teams inquiring about the availability of scholarships or perhaps wondering if Rychcik would be willing to look at a certain player for consideration for his program.
The tools are in place for sustained success at N.C. State. Sophomores Renada Davis and Emily Weiman were major players in State’s success. Most of this season’s team will return in 2014.
N.C. State is the largest university in North Carolina, nestled in the capital city of the state, and participates in one of the better, if not the best, conferences in the NCAA. There is plenty to sell, but winning is the best advertisement of them all.
The 2013 ACC Champions have set a standard. Future teams at N.C. State will have to honor and uphold it.
