Once upon a time, the women’s soccer team was a perennial powerhouse. Between the program’s first season in 1984 and 1996, N.C. State made the NCAA tournament every year except for two: 1984 and 1993.
In eight of the Wolfpack’s 11 tournament appearances, State advanced at least as far as the quarterfinals. The Pack made the national semifinals in 1989. In 1988, State went 19-2-3, losing in the national championship game after winning the program’s only ACC title.
Technically, State tied North Carolina in the inaugural ACC Tournament championship game, but the Pack won the title on penalty kicks. Coach Laura Kerrigan, then a senior on the team, won the tournament with her penalty kick. State went on to lose to the Tar Heels in the national title game.Nineteen years later, Kerrigan is finishing up her 10th year as coach. Prior to being hired by State in 1997, Kerrigan served as an assistant coach for Colorado College, William & Mary and American University.
She said having attended State makes her feel differently about her job.
“Anybody who plays at N.C. State always has N.C. State in their heart,” Kerrigan said. “I love N.C. State. Everybody always says once you’re a member of the Wolfpack, you’re a Wolfpacker for life.”
Through almost 10 seasons as coach, heading into tonight’s match against Wake Forest, she’s compiled a record of 79-93-16. State has not made the NCAA Tournament since a first-round exit in 1996 and has not advanced past the first round of the ACC Tournament since 1995.
As for what her response would be to critics who deem her record disappointing, she said while she works every day toward winning more games, coaching is about more than wins and losses.
“Obviously, we want to have more wins,” Kerrigan said. “My job is to give 100 percent at coaching and do whatever I can to make sure we win games, to make sure my players are doing well in school, to make sure my players are good ambassadors to the community. Wins are definitely a big part of it, and we’re working for it every day.”
Junior midfielder Tami Krzeszewski said she doesn’t think of Kerrigan’s record as disappointing because of State’s difficult schedule.
“The ACC is by far the hardest conference,” she said. “If you look at other teams’ records in the ACC, they’re not going to be the greatest.”
When asked to rate her career at State, Kerrigan said it’s been filled with “ebbs and flows.”
“We’re playing in the best league in the country,” she said. “Every year we’re striving to make our players better. As a coach, I have to sit back and see if I’m moving the players in the right direction: are they improving [on and] off the field?
“A lot of people are going to have a lot of different opinions about what a coach’s job is at this level. Certainly, we’re working to get more wins. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘OK, what can I do to win today?'”
Junior forward Lindsay Vera said Kerrigan’s desire for winning really appeals to her.
“When we lose, she’s as down as any of us,” Vera said. “It sucks when we lose, but it’s nice to see how much she cares about us.”
Vera also said the players respect Kerrigan because of her on-field accomplishments.
“It helps that she had such a good career when she played here,” Vera said. “It’s hard to follow coaches that didn’t do much or weren’t very good. It helps that we know she knows what she’s talking about. When we have fitness, we know that she can probably outrun any of us any day. We can’t argue or fight when we have to run because we know Coach can do it.”
Kerrigan said the team is excited about the construction of an on-campus stadium, a development Kerrigan said has been in the works since before she took the job. But she said she doesn’t use the absence of an on-campus facility as any type of excuse.
“I don’t have any complaints at all about Method Road,” Kerrigan said. “We’re so excited about playing in the middle of campus, under the lights, in front of everybody. It’ll be great for recruiting to have everything right here.”
Even with the program’s recent struggles, Kerrigan said the team is capable of getting back to where it was 15 years ago: a fixture in the top 20.
“We came within six minutes of beating Clemson in regulation, and Clemson was No. 19 at the time,” she said. “It’s certainly something we’re capable of. We feel like we’re capable of being in the top 25. We just have to play consistently.”
