WINSTON SALEM, N.C. — The NC State women’s soccer team dropped points for a third consecutive ACC match with its 1-1 overtime draw at Wake Forest on Sunday night.
The Wolfpack (5-4-2, 0-1-2 ACC) was the better of the two sides on the night, outshooting the Demon Deacons (5-3-3, 0-1-2 ACC) 12-5 across the match and hit the woodwork once in the second half and once in overtime but could not find a winner.
“Can’t keep dropping points,” said NC State head coach Tim Santoro. “We had control a lot of that game, they had a nice little surge in the second half. Didn’t create a lot of chances, scored a nice goal, the game shouldn’t have been a position in where that goal should have mattered. We got some good chances in overtime that we have to score. Similar to a week ago, not a good tie.”
The Wolfpack dominated the first half, outshooting the host 6-2. Despite the dominance, it took the Pack 36 minutes to finally break through the Deacons defense.
Senior midfielder Ricci Walking picked up the ball outside the 18 and drove towards goal drawing two defenders towards her with the run. The defenders rushing towards Walkling opened up acres of space for senior forward Tziarra King. Walking found the wide-open King with a perfect pass and King made no mistake on the finish, slotting it into the bottom corner.
The hosts were the better of the two sides in the opening 20 of the second half and they capitalized on the solid start in the 62nd minute with Hayley Younginer firing home from close range. Junior goalkeeper Jessica Berlin was able to get a hand on it but the shot was too strong for her to keep out of the net.
“They changed formations,” Santoro said. “They completely changed formations second half, and we talked about it. We went over it at halftime. We had a good feeling they would since we were pretty comfortable in the first half against their 3-5-2 and that wasn’t it. They competed a little more than us for a period in the second half and then towards the end of the second half we started getting it back.”
The two sides traded chances throughout the remaining half an hour but neither was able to find a winner and the match headed to overtime.
In the overtime period, the Wolfpack had multiple chances to grab an equalizer but despite King cracking a curler off the post and getting numerous set-piece opportunities, the Pack could not find a winner.
The draw brings the Wolfpack’s winless streak to three as they have yet to take all three points in an ACC game this season. The Wolfpack needs to start getting points in the ACC given the unforgiving difficulty of the conference, which currently has seven teams in the top-25.
“It’s the ACC, we knew it was gonna be a dogfight,” redshirt sophomore defender Lulu Guttenberger said. “Wake Forest is a great team. We knew what to expect, but we fought for 110 minutes. I think that’s something we can take away for all the other ACC games because it’s gonna be the same thing every time we step onto the field.
The Wolfpack will be back at Dail Soccer Stadium for its Pink Match against Boston College on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.
“We have to [win the next match], there’s no exception to that,” Guttenberger said. “We have seven games left, as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong. We definitely need the three points, there’s definitely no excuse for that…”
Senior midfielder Ricci Walking moving the ball upfield versus Wake Forest in their match on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019 at W. Dennie Spry Stadium. Walking finished the match with one assist, contributing to the eventual 1-1 tie versus Wake Forest.
