Despite holding a top-25 ranking for much of the season, the NC State men’s soccer team missed out on an NCAA berth for the sixth straight year.
Leaving the Wolfpack (8-6-3) out of the tournament was a massive snub by the selection committee, but also entirely predictable. NC State missed out on opportunities to truly prove itself with big wins and came apart down the stretch. Although the Pack held the 34th RPI nationally, it was not deemed one of the best 48 teams in the country.
However, the Pack proved a worthy contender against top opposition. The ties against Wake Forest and Notre Dame, respectively ranked first and seventh in the tournament, were not desperate defensive performances but well-contested matches that could’ve gone either way.
In a fairer world, the Wolfpack would’ve been judged on the quality of its play game-to-game, rather than the vague committee format, which looks generally at win total, streaks and “big” wins, which the Pack didn’t really have.
Knocking off ranked South Carolina, which made the tournament, was huge, and State defeated Boston College (also a tournament team) 2-1 in overtime in the ACC season opener. However, under nearly perfect conditions to knock off Clemson (the 2-seed in the tournament), chance after chance went begging, and Clemson sucker-punched the Pack, running up a 4-1 scoreline in Dail Soccer Stadium.
This match in particular was frustrating to watch. NC State broke through on goal numerous times in the first half but wasn’t clinical, failing to punish the Tigers for their defensive mistakes. The Pack caught Clemson at the end of the regular season with eyes on the postseason but lacked the offensive punch to get a massive upset that would’ve been enough to get an at-large bid.
State’s other near misses include failing to hold a late lead at Syracuse, ranked sixth in the tournament and falling at Davidson, a match that, if won, would’ve made State undefeated in its non-conference slate and gotten the team a crucial ninth win.
Even with its stumbles, however, the Pack either beat or tied four tournament teams while playing in the most difficult conference in the country. The ACC contributed seven teams to the tournament, so should even the lower-ranked teams in the conference be considered for a tournament berth based on their quality relative to weaker conferences?
NC State was left out of the tournament in favor of Connecticut, a team with an RPI of 36, slightly behind State’s ranking based on strength of schedule. This calls into question why RPI even exists if the selection committee can so easily dismiss it.
Connecticut made it further in its conference tournament and beat USF, the tournament’s 14-seed, twice, but the Huskies lost to all three ACC teams they played: Syracuse, Boston College and Louisville. The Pack went 1-1-1 against those teams in the regular season.
Does this mean NC State is clearly a better team than Connecticut? No, but it does call into question the legitimacy of the selection committee, and with head-coaching jobs often coming down to making or missing a tournament, the subjectivity involved in choosing who gets in and who doesn’t is irritating.
The selection committee cannot watch every team play matches week in and week out, so a team like State, which can be incredibly brilliant or excruciatingly frustrating (in true Wolfpack fashion) can be left behind, while teams with a few big wins can sneak into the tournament.
Boston College is one of those teams. The Wolfpack dominated the Eagles in terms of chances and possession but needed overtime to win, thanks to BC’s brutal-to-watch defensive style — reminiscent of the Eagles’ other football team.
Boston College, however, managed to go 9-7-1, including four wins in conference, one against defending national champions Virginia and a 2-1 win home against Syracuse, the eventual 2015 ACC champion (the other two were against conference bottom feeders Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh). Stats are telling, though. The Eagles scored twice in the first half and sat deep, as the Orange outshot them 16-1 in the second 45.
At the end of the day, the Pack was a fun but flawed team in 2015 with an attacking style with plenty of flair but without a go-to scorer in key moments. NC State could outplay pretty much any team, and the biased side of me is upset the committee didn’t look harder at the games against Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Boston College and South Carolina.
Unfortunately, the NCAA’s system is the one we’re left with, and the Pack must take solace in the growth of its young players, the establishment of a strong system and an uncompromising approach to playing for more than W’s and L’s.
