The Pack took to the road this weekend, tying Miami 1-1 and dropping a contest to No. 7 Florida State two days later.
Tying an ACC team, a feat the squad achieved only once in its past two seasons, should have been seen as a positive for the team, especially considering the team was down a player in overtime.
However, unranked Miami also has aspirations of snagging a low seed in the ACC tournament, so the tie did not allow the Pack to gain any ground. A loss to No. 7 Florida State Sunday, while expected, upped the level of desperation even further.
Senior Katie Ruiz has not made it to the ACC since the team was bumped out of the playoffs by UNC in the first round her freshman year. Though the young Pack has improved steadily this season, Ruiz and the seniors are not willing to sit back in their final year and wait for maturity to take its course.
“There’s nothing anyone wants more than to make it to the postseason, especially for the seniors that actually got to experience it once freshman year,” Ruiz said. “The next two years, we weren’t even close. The fact that we’re so close is going to motivate everyone next weekend.”
Miami and State are clustered with Virginia around the 8-seed spot and all three have aspirations of creating an upset in the ACC tournament, which will take place November 4-8 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The top eight teams in the conference will compete.
Coach Steve Springthorpe said the team was banking on Miami losing to North Carolina, but the Hurricanes upset the Tar Heels, 1-0, Sunday. It was the highest-ranked opponent Miami had ever beaten.
A win by either club Friday also would have made given either team some breathing room, but now, according to Ruiz, wins against Frances Marion Thursday and Duke Sunday are more crucial than ever.
“The games against Frances Marion and Duke are must-wins, and even then we have to hope for teams to lose and tie for us to have a chance to advance,” Ruiz said.
The Pack tried to get a jump on that track this weekend on its Florida road swing. After a scoreless first half against Miami, the Hurricanes’ Lauren Singer scored in the 66th minute. But depth player Kristina Argiroff scored the first goal of her collegiate career to tie the score less than 30 seconds later.
Argiroff, a sophomore, was playing in only her second game of the season. Her shot found its way into the top-left corner of the goal from 30 yards out.
In the 98th minute, freshman Kara Blosser was whistled for her second yellow of the game and was tossed out of the contest. The Pack was forced to play the entire rest of overtime down a man.
“Unfortunately for us, we didn’t give ourselves a great chance to win the game when we had to play a man down in overtime. At that point, we were trying to at least to get out of there with a tie,” Springthorpe said.
Two days and a flight to Tallahassee later, Florida State pelted State with scoring opportunities, outshooting the Pack 16-3 and forcing Kim Kern to make nine saves.
The Pack escaped the first half unscathed, but one three minute stretch sealed the game for Florida State. The Seminoles’ Jessica Price scored on a header off a cross from teammate Ines Jaurena in the 63rd minute for her to bring the score to 1-0.
“It wasn’t like we screwed it up for ourselves,” Ruiz said. “They’re a very good team.”
A few minutes later, FSU’s Tiffany McCarty added an insurance goal. McCarty grabbed the ball and fired a low shot past Kern into the net for her 13th goal of the season.
Springthorpe said although the effort was there, the team was bested by a superior Florida State team.
“We just really could not muster much attack,” Springthorpe said. “The game was very different for us in that FSU really took it to us. We couldn’t play our style of game. We just flat-out got beaten by a much better team.”
The team is now faced with a must-win game against Duke Sunday, which will also act as Senior Day, but it may not do the team any good.
“It’s not entirely out of our hands, but our destiny is not entirely in our hands at this point,” Ruiz said. “It’s not a fun place to be.”
So for all the positive strides the team has made this year, settling outside the ACC tournament will not sit well with those who will not have another shot at it.
“We’re in a place where we’ve got to win a game to get in, and that’s a different situation for our team. They haven’t experienced that in a couple of years,” Springthorpe said.
