Women’s soccer

The Hurricanes (10-6-3, 3-4-2 ACC) of the University of Miami visited the women’s soccer team (8-11-0, 0-9-0 ACC) Thursday night at the N.C. State soccer stadium and left with a 1-0 victory. The loss was the eighth time the Wolfpack has been shut out this season and leaves the team still winless against opponents from the ACC.

The first half ended in a scoreless tie with the Hurricanes leading in offense with seven shots, four on goal, and four corner kicks. The Pack had three shots, one on goal, and no corner kicks. The best opportunity for a score in the first half came from a shot of State senior forward Lindsay Vera in the 11th minute of the game. The shot banged off the cross bar inches from going in.

“We knew we could combine and attack their outside backs, they have been playing really good in the flank lately and we figured that would open up the space in the middle for Lindsay to take on,” coach Laura Kerrigan said. “In the first half that is exactly what we did we got the ball around the side a few times and Lindsay was able to take on and dribble through their backs and put a shot off the cross bar.”

Coming out of the half the team kept the same game plan for the most part.  State attempted to speed up the attack against the Canes.

“Every halftime has almost been the same speech,” senior forward Lindsay Vera said. “Kerrigan tells us we are doing a great job. She just keeps us going and cleans up a few things like push outside or open up, just little technical stuff, but for the most part she just keeps us going.”

The scoreless tie was broken by a goal in the second half from 20 yards out by Miami forward Julianne Rickers in the 65th minute. The goal gave Miami a 1-0 lead which they would not surrender for the rest of the game.  After the goal, the Pack went on the attack attempting to even up the game.

“We’ve always been told that after a team scores, if it’s your team or not, the first five minutes after the goal is usually the biggest chance for the other team to score,” Vera said. “So we just look at each other and say five minutes and go after it.”

The Pack’s best opportunity to tie it back up came off the shot of junior forward Briana Cunningham in the 81st minute. This was the last time the Wolfpack had the ball in the vicinity of Miami’s goal and their keeper Vikki Alonzo. 

“We tried to get as many attacking personalities on the field as we could in that last 15 minutes,” Kerrigan said. “We went into a very risky attack minded system, but when you are down 1-0 you take out all the stops.  And we did, we were able to create a few opportunities and Briana was able to get a great shot on goal.”

The Pack will next face the Seminoles of Florida State at home on Sunday Nov. 2nd in its last game of the season. The game will be senior night in which the two seniors, Lindsay Vera and Tami Krzeszewski, will be honored.