The NC State women’s soccer team earned its 10th win of the season by blanking Syracuse 3-0 Saturday afternoon at Dail Soccer Stadium. The win gives State back-to-back double-digit win seasons for the first time since 1995 to 1996.
The Wolfpack (10-4-1, 3-3-1 ACC) dominated possession over the Orange (7-6-2, 2-4-1 ACC) to continue its streak of scoring first in wins this season. The Pack is 10-0 when scoring the first goal in 2017. Sophomore midfielder Tziarra King scored two goals and had one assist on the day.
Head coach Tim Santoro, who now has seven ACC wins over the past two seasons after going winless in the conference during 2014 and 2015, was happy to see his team perform well at home after a stretch of four-straight away games.
“We were pretty complete for the whole game,” Santoro said. “It was nice to get home, it was a long road trip, we were away for about three-and-a-half weeks so just to get home was nice. We were pretty thorough in every facet of the game for the entire 90 minutes which was what we wanted to do. Down the stretch we gotta be able to put together complete games and I thought today was one of those.”
Through the first 30 minutes of the game, NC State was able to hold possession of the ball, but couldn’t find the net. Sophomore midfielder Ricarda Walkling broke the 0-0 stalemate in the 35th minute when she slid a shot past the goalie from inside the box off of an assist from King. The goal was Walkling’s fourth of the season, placing her as the second-highest scorer on the team behind King.
Walkling’s goal proved to be the lone difference in the first half. At the break, the Wolfpack held the Orange to a single shot while recording six. Syracuse goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan had two saves in the first half.
The second half started similarly to the first with both teams vying to control the ball, but NC State quickly took control by stringing together passes on the Syracuse half of the field. Brosnan managed to keep the Orange in the game by saving a rocket shot by junior Taylor Porter in the 53rd minute.
The Pack scored its second goal of the game in the 60th minute when King found herself face-to-face with the goalie from inside the penalty area off of a cross from sophomore Kristina Schuster. King calmly placed the ball in the corner for her eighth goal of the season.
In the 78th minute, it appeared that Syracuse might put itself onto the scoreboard but a Kate Hostage shot went just wide of the net. For a 10-minute stretch from around the 70th to the 80th minute, the Orange pressured the Pack offensively, but failed to cut into the lead.
Less than a minute after being subbed on, King found the back of the net off of an assist from junior Hannah Keogh for the second time on an upper-90 strike from the right side with eight minutes left on the board, solidifying the Pack’s lead at 3-0.
The goal was King’s ninth of the season, placing her into a second-place tie for goals scored in the ACC — sophomore Deyna Castellanos of Florida State is in first with 11.
“I always look to improve from year to year,” King said. “Hit that eight mark, passed it so that’s exciting but at the end it’s just help my team so as long as we’re getting the results, that’s what I’m here to do, help the team.”
In the remaining seconds, the Pack was forced to play defensively but was able to keep a clean sheet. NC State held Syracuse to only four shots for the entirety of the game. Of its 10 wins this season, seven have come as shutouts.
“[Our defense] was tight, they didn’t give up a whole lot,” Santoro said. “But I think the biggest part of not giving up shots was we had the ball a lot. I think our possession and our attacking was probably our best defense today.”
This crucial third conference win for the Wolfpack helps the team’s chances of making the ACC tournament with three games left on the schedule.
Furthermore, it was a big win against Syracuse. For comparison, Syracuse is performing similarly to NC State in the ACC conference. Unfortunately the Orange were dealt a hard blow against No. 5 UNC-Chapel Hill with a 7-0 loss on Sep. 30. Notre Dame defeated both the Orange and the Wolfpack but unlike NC State, Syracuse managed to only give up two goals to the Fighting Irish while State gave up four.
“To be .500 in the ACC at this stage of the season is not bad,” Santoro said. “We still have three games left that we think that if we play well we can get some more points. I don’t know if we’ve ever been this deep in an ACC season and had this many points and been at .500 so we like where we are but we still feel there’s a lot more left for us to do.”
NC State will play at home again Thursday in Dail Soccer Stadium at 7 p.m. against Clemson.
