Another year, another highly-anticipated fall sports slate for NC State athletics. While football receives much of the hype from year to year, the Olympic sports provide plenty of excitement themselves, including the back-to-back national championship-winning women’s cross country team, who will be going for the three-peat this season.
For everyone who is new to campus, returning as a student or cheering on the Wolfpack wherever you may be, this is the definitive guide to the fall sporting events you have to see.
Football vs. Notre Dame
As usual, this was the toughest sport to choose the best game. While it was tempting to pick conference home games against Clemson and North Carolina, I have to go with the Pack’s home opener against Notre Dame on Saturday, Sept. 9.
It’s not every day that one of the most storied and recognized programs in college football history comes to town. In fact, Notre Dame has only made one previous trip to Raleigh — a game well-remembered by Wolfpack fans as being played in the midst of a torrential downpour wrought by Hurricane Matthew, in which NC State prevailed.
Every time Notre Dame plays a road game against a Power Five opponent, it’s always a big deal, and this is no exception. The Fighting Irish entered the 2023 season ranked No. 13 in the AP preseason poll, due in no small part to the addition of Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman, who will be playing against NC State for the fourth time in his college career.
Hartman’s return to Raleigh adds extra spice to what is one of the most highly-anticipated home openers in school history. Whether this will be your first football game or your 100th, this is one you can’t miss. Carter-Finley will be rocking and ready to kickoff the season with a bang.
Cross Country: Adidas XC Challenge in Cary
Last year’s NC State women’s cross country team did something that no other program in school history has ever done: win back-to-back national championships. What the Wolfpack women have done the last two seasons has been nothing short of incredible, making themselves known as the most successful team on campus.
You’ve only got one chance to see both the women’s and the men’s cross country teams in action this semester in person, and that’s Friday, Sept. 15 at the Adidas XC Challenge in Cary. Not only that, but it’s an opportunity to witness the greatness of senior Katelyn Tuohy, a two-time individual national championship-winner in the 2022 outdoor 5000m and the 2022 cross country NCAA championships and will possibly go down as the greatest athlete in school history.
Watch the Wolfpack as it competes alongside other in-state schools on its quest to make even more history.
Women’s soccer vs. UNC
It doesn’t matter when, it doesn’t matter where and it doesn’t matter the sport: NC State vs. UNC is always a must-see. Such is the case when Wolfpack women’s soccer hosts the Tar Heels on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Carolina is far and away the perennial powerhouse in women’s soccer with 21 national championships and finished as the national runner-up in 2022. The Heels enter the season ranked No. 2 in the country and will once again be a contender for the title.
This matchup may seem like David vs. Goliath at first glance, but the Pack has held its own the past few years, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in six of the last seven seasons and even beating the Heels recently in 2021.
NC State’s most recent win against the Heels was in front of a home crowd at Dail Soccer Field, and the Pack will once again need a packed house to provide that home field advantage and give the team a shot at a major upset.
Volleyball vs. Louisville
NC State volleyball has gradually improved during the three-year tenure of head coach Luka Slabe, but the program’s growth will be put to the test when the Pack hosts defending national runner-up Louisville on Sunday, Oct. 1.
Louisville has been knocking on the door of a championship the last couple of seasons, finishing as a semifinalist in 2021 and reaching the title match in 2022 before falling to Texas. With their championship appearance last season, the Cardinals became the first ACC volleyball team to ever advance to the NCAA title match.
Aside from the match and the surrounding hype, this one is worth attending solely because of where it’s being played: legendary Reynolds Coliseum, one of the best — yet most underrated — college sports venues in the country. Also home to women’s basketball and wrestling, the Old Barn easily reaches deafening levels of noise, which is bad news for visiting teams.
Knocking off the defending national runner-up may seem like a daunting task, but maybe all the Pack needs is a little “Reynolds magic” to pull off the upset.
Men’s soccer vs. Clemson
Less than two years removed from winning the men’s soccer national championship in 2021, Clemson is once again in the mix for the crown and will travel to Raleigh for the Pack’s senior night on Friday, Oct. 27.
NC State hasn’t beaten Clemson since 2017, and doing so will be no less difficult this season as the Tigers enter the year ranked No. 9 in the country. However, the Pack has shown at times that it can hang with the best, tying eventual national champion Syracuse in Raleigh in 2022.
After going through a bit of a rough stretch the past few seasons, the Pack’s hoping this is the year the team can get back on track and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019. There’s no better way to prove you’re back than to earn a program-changing win against a recent national champion on senior night.
