Coming off of an impressive 3-0 win over Notre Dame on senior day, the NC State women’s soccer team will be heading over to Louisville for the final game of its regular season.
The Wolfpack (8-5-4, 3-2-4 ACC) needs a win against the Cardinals (12-2-2, 5-2-2 ACC), as a spot in the ACC Tournament still hangs in the balance for head coach Tim Santoro and his squad. The Pack currently sits sixth in the table with 13 points, but just two points separate them and the ninth-place Fighting Irish. With only the top eight teams making the tournament, the Pack will be looking to take on three points in this difficult road game.
The Cardinals currently sit four points above the Pack in the standings but have very little to play compared to the Pack, because a win will not give them a better seed, and a loss would only see them drop a maximum of one spot.
This season, the Cardinals have been led by junior midfielder Emina Erik, who has racked up 23 points this season (eight goals, seven assists). The next-highest point total on the Cardinals roster is sophomore forward Delaney Snyder on nine points (four goals, one assist).
Similar to the Cardinals, the Pack has one player who leads the offensive statistics by a large margin, with senior forward Tziarra King racking up 29 points (12 goals, five assists).The next-highest player is senior midfielder Ricci Walkling with 12 points (two goals, eight assists).
Defensively, the two sides are also similar, with the Cardinals conceding an average of just .75 goals from 7.2 shots per game this season compared to the Pack’s .94 goals from 9.5 shots per game.
Between the sticks, Santoro will likely turn to junior keeper Jessica Berlin, who returned to the lineup against Notre Dame after being dropped in favor of freshman Eden Milan in the Syracuse game. Berlin has been overall solid this season, apart from a poor performance at Pitt which saw her dropped the next match, with the first-year starter making an average of just over three saves per goal conceded this season.
For the Cardinals, it will undoubtedly be redshirt junior goalkeeper Gabby Kouzelos who gets the nod, as the keeper has started every match of the season so far. Kouzelos has averaged just over four saves per goal conceded and has racked up four shutouts this season.
The match will be a close one, but with the Pack having both the momentum behind them and more to play for, expect the Pack to get at minimum a crucial road point that just might be enough for them to lock up a spot in the ACC Tournament.
Kickoff for the match is set for 5 p.m. Thursday at Dr. Mark & Cindy Lynn Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. The match can be streamed on Fox Sports Go.
