The NC State women’s soccer team played two polar opposite matches during the weekend, downing Oregon 2-0 Friday night before slumping to a 3-0 defeat against William & Mary Sunday afternoon.

Both games, played at Dail Soccer Field, were part of the 2015 NC State Tournament, which saw William & Mary (4-1-1), Oregon (1-5-0) and Wake Forest (2-1-2) converge in Raleigh for a weekend of games.

Sunday’s loss broke a three-game win streak for the Wolfpack (3-3-0), but the weekend started in excellent fashion for the team, thanks to redshirt junior forward Alexa Allen’s pair of goals against the Ducks.

“We had a lot to improve on after last weekend against East Tennessee,” said head coach Tim Santoro when asked to reflect on his team’s performance against Oregon. “It’s our third-straight shutout, which I’m probably more happy with than anything. We had a few things we needed to shore up, and we did. We were pretty comfortable. They had a lot of shots from distance and a lot of crosses. There was pressure, but we didn’t give up clear-cut chances, which is good.

“Attacking is always the hardest thing to get right, and we’re a work-in-progress, but we’re starting to create more and more, and we got a couple of good finishes by Alexa.”

Against the Ducks, the Pack showed composure and strong defending to repel the visitors’ attacks. On the opposite end, NC State’s variety of offensive options eventually paid off, with Allen providing two clinical finishes.

“We’ve been working hard as a team on just finishing goals and chances that we get because games are getting harder and harder going into the ACC,” Allen said. “If you get one or two chances in the game, you’ve got to finish those.

Her first was a thumping drive from 25 yards in the 31st minute. Freshman defensive midfielder Taylor Porter provided the assist, pouncing on a loose pass from a Duck defender and playing the ball first time into Allen’s path.

“There were four players in front of me, and I saw the goalie was backing up and wasn’t on her line,” Allen said. “So, I knew I just had to chip it over her and hit the goal.”

Much of the match lacked any kind of pattern, although Oregon had a slight edge in possession. The Wolfpack’s solid group of freshmen continued to perform well, with defenders Ella Bonner and Hannah Keogh and Porter once again showing they belong in the starting 11.

Allen sealed the win for the Wolfpack with less than a minute remaining, sprinting onto a clearance from Caroline Gentry and finishing smartly with a low shot past the Oregon goalkeeper. The strike marked Allen’s team-leading third goal of the season, all of which have come as a substitute.

Oregon outshot the Pack 15-9 on the night, but both teams tallied five shots on goal. Freshman goalkeeper Sydney Wootten preserved the shutout for NC State with five saves on the night.

For the first 10–15 minutes of Sunday’s match, NC State looked like the same combative, organized side that won three straight games, pressuring the William & Mary Tribe into mistakes, creating opportunities and looking like it would be four in a row after 90 minutes.

However, the Pack’s intensity hit a wall, and the disciplined visiting side grew in quality as the match went on.

NC State’s attacking players weren’t recovering to help defensively, particularly in midfield, and the team grew disconnected. The back four and the defensive midfielder, Porter, were left isolated, and the Tribe took advantage of the space in midfield to calmly pass the ball and create chances.

On the first William & Mary goal, State’s midfield was slow getting back defensively, which gave the Tribe’s Nicole Baxter time to serve a great ball into forward Katie Johnston, who finished expertly with a diving header in the 22nd minute.

William & Mary would notch a second on a defensive mix-up in the 40th minute, which prompted Santoro to alter NC State’s formation in the second half to three defenders. But the Pack struggled without freshman forward Maxine Blackwood, out nursing a minor injury, and the two-day turnaround simply proved too big an obstacle for a fairly inexperienced team. The Tribe sealed the game on a counter attack in the 71st minute.

“If we’re going to be good, and we are a better team than we’ve been, we have to be consistent,” Santoro said. “You have a lot of two-game weekends, and you have to be able to play that second game. [W&M] had a tough game on Friday, an overtime game, and they bounced back today and found a way to score three goals on 12 shots.”

With UNC-Greensboro heading to Raleigh Thursday, the Pack will be primed to get back to winning ways.