Friday night at the N.C. State Soccer Stadium, N.C. State had what seemed like a recipe for success. The Wolfpack were pumped up for a game against archrival North Carolina. The team was playing in front of 1632 people, one of the biggest crowds ever for N.C. State women’s soccer. Most of State’s key players have been back long enough that they were feeling “played in,” according to coach Laura Kerrigan. Yet two things remained to be added into the equation: inclement weather and the potency of the No. 2 Tar Heel offense. In the end, a deluge from both doomed the Pack to a 5-0 loss.  

State was back on its heels very early in the game. After only six minutes of play UNC had already recorded three shots, one of which off of the crossbar, and corner kick.  

And as the rain picked up, the floodgates broke at 17:05 of the first half. The Tar Heels’ junior forward Casey Nogueria, the ACC’s leading scorer, one-touched a ball from Jessica McDonald to make the score 1-0.  

Just over 10 minutes later, the score was 4-0 and Nogueria had three goals. State would never recover. 

“We talked about in our preparation about how we needed to make sure that we were stopping their shots at the top of the box,” coach Laura Kerrigan said. “In the first half we didn’t stop their shots at the top of the box and Casey Nogueria made us pay for that. Anytime you have a player of that caliber, you can’t let them have shots at the top of the box.” 

Nogueria would add her fourth tally of the night in the second half at 43:66. Soon after that point UNC began pulling its starters in favor of backups, even getting as far as the third string goalkeeper. Only one starter played all 90 minutes. 

The loss drops State to 8-8 overall, 0-6 in the ACC. The Pack has still not scored a goal in conference play. State now moves on to its final road test of the regular season Thursday at Wake Forest at 7:00 p.m.