The NC State women’s soccer team lost its final home game of the season Wednesday evening, falling 7-1 to No. 1 Virginia.

The Wolfpack (4-14-0, 0-9-0 ACC) entered the contest having lost 1-0 to Louisville at home Sunday afternoon. The Cavaliers entered off two consecutive shutouts, defeating both Louisville and No. 2 Florida State 1-0 in Charlottesville. 

Virginia came on to Dail Soccer Field and scored a whopping seven goals, four of which came from senior forward Makenzy Doniak in the first half. The Pack scored its first and only goal in the 59th minute, but Virginia would answer three more times before the 90-minute whistle. 

Virginia struck in the first minute of play when Doniak scored her fourth goal of the season, firing a shot past freshman goalkeeper Sydney Wootten off an early corner kick. 

The second goal of the game came in the eighth minute when Doniak scored again from inside the box, marking her fifth of the season.

Doniak would have gotten her sixth of the season in the 11th minute, but the offsides call came late, allowing the Wolfpack to escape conceding a third.

Wootten had a huge save in the 18th minute, blocking a shot by senior forward Kaili Torres and sending it outside of the box, where the Pack was able to clear the ball and carry it down the field for an offensive opportunity. 

Doniak finally got her hat trick in the 33rd minute off a header assisted by junior midfielder/defender Megan Cox near the left post. Cox’s assist marked her fourth of the season, her third coming off of Doniak’s first-minute goal.

The fourth goal for Doniak came in the 41st minute when freshman midfielder Ayan Adu fired a cross from the right side of the box, and she sent it soaring past Wootten into the back of the net. 

The lineup for NC State in the second half looked different in the back. Wootten left the game and redshirt junior goalkeeper Mackenzie Stelljes took her place in goal, a change head coach Tim Santoro has made quite a few times this season. Both keepers have rotated throughout the year. 

The Wolfpack earned its consolation goal in the 59th minute when freshmen midfielders Taylor Porter and Crystal Cordova combined passes in the midfield, allowing Porter to send the ball flying from about 36 yards out and over the head of ACC defensive player of the week and junior goalkeeper Morgan Stearns. 

Porter’s goal was only the ninth that the Cavaliers have allowed this season, and it also ended their two-game shutout streak.

An NC State defensive turnover inside the box in the 63rd minute allowed Virginia to answer the Pack’s goal with a shot fired by junior forward Morgan Reuther past Stelljes. The goal was Reuther’s eighth of the season, making her tied with leading goal scorer junior midfielder Alexis Schaffer. 

Virginia capitalized again in the 74th minute on a shot fired from 18 yards to the left of Stelljes by redshirt freshman defender Annaugh Madsen, her fourth of the season. 

With just over five minutes left in the game, Virginia scored its seventh and final goal of the contest, when freshman forward/midfielder Christiana Sullivan recorded her first goal of the season off a backheel assist from Torres about 20 yards out. 

The Cavaliers tallied up a total of 20 shots on the night to the Wolfpack’s four. 

In the final home game of their careers, every graduating player took the field one last time in the final minutes of play with the exception of senior defender Shannon Cleaver. 

The Pack will play its season finale Sunday afternoon just down the road as it takes on the No. 12 Duke Blue Devils in Durham at Koskinen Stadium.