After opting out of the fall season due to roster limitations, the NC State women’s soccer team went 5-3-1 across its nine games this spring, a solid record especially considering the Wolfpack’s shorthanded roster that featured just 15 outfield players.

Prior to the season, head coach Tim Santoro spoke about how his focus for this spring was to prepare his players for the fall and start putting the pieces together before the rest of the Wolfpack’s incoming signing class joins the program. 

With the spring season now in the books and the Pack fully turning its attention to the fall, here are some takeaways from the Wolfpack’s spring games.

Solid foundation

The Pack has roughly a dozen players coming in for the fall season, including the three early enrollees who were not able to play this spring but were with the team, so the roster will look fairly different, but this spring showed that the Wolfpack has a solid base to build from. 

The only two players who played significant minutes that will need to be replaced are senior midfielder Mikhail Johnson and senior defender Mackenzie Crittenberger. 

One of the Wolfpack’s strengths this spring was its defense, conceding just six across nine games and never conceding more than one in a single game, and the Pack will return all of its defensive spine. 

Sophomore midfielder Jaiden Thomas’s ability to screen the backline as a holding mid is very important for the Pack’s defensive stability. The center back partnership of junior Jenna Butler and redshirt junior Lulu Guttenberger, as well as freshman goalkeeper Maria Echezarreta, are all coming back and will provide a good solid base for the Pack to build around.

Two other freshmen, forward Mia Vaughan and defender Cara Elmendorf, got solid minutes to start getting acclimated to the college level. Vaughan especially showed a lot of versatility, playing as a left mid in a three-at-the-back, and both a left back and left wing in a more traditional four-at-the-back.

“[Forward] is what she played growing up, that is what we recruited her as,” Santoro said after the team’s final game. “We have been trying a lot of different things this spring… Overall I thought Mia competed at both spots and she is going to give us a lot of flexibility moving forward.”

In addition to its defensive spine, attacking players like sophomore forwards Jameese Joseph and Leyah Hall-Robinson will return and continue to improve.

Arguably the most important returning player is junior midfielder Toni Starova. With her ability to trigger the press and not only create scoring chances but finish them as well, she will be a crucial midfield talisman for the Wolfpack to build around.

If these players can continue to improve on what they did this spring, the Pack has a solid foundation for the large incoming signing class to build on.

Goalkeeper set for the next four years

Echezarreta is in a really unique position given the circumstances of the past year. She has played nine games for NC State and been with the program for nearly three full semesters now, but she still has four full years of eligibility left. 

Poised to be the Pack’s starter for the foreseeable future, Echezarreta’s shot-stopping ability isn’t her only strength. She is solid on the ball, aggressive in coming off her line and a vocal leader at the back. In the early parts of the spring when fans were not allowed into Dail Soccer Stadium, it was really easy to hear just how vocal she is during games. 

“She has been everything we thought she was going to be, and I think she is just scraping the surface,” Santoro said. “There’s still some things in the college game that an international has to adjust to. Considering we still have four seasons with her, and the strides she’s made already have been big, she is going to continue to get better. We are really happy to have her here.”

Don’t be surprised if Echezarreta etches her name in the NC State record books for matches played and matches started if she stays with the Wolfpack for all four years of her eligibility.

Chance creation and finishing

The Wolfpack’s offense showed a lot of promise, but the finishing just was not there. Taking nearly 12 shots per game, the Pack had no issue generating chances. But despite putting 35% of those shots on target, the Pack scored just over one goal per game. 

Like everything else with this spring, the chance creation is a really good base to build on. With a young forward group, spearheaded by the duo of Joseph and Hall-Robinson, the finishing will come with time. 

All three of the Pack’s losses came as a string of 1-0 losses where, as Santoro put it, the Pack was simply “snake bitten.”  While the Pack managed just two shots in the Duke loss, it took 28 shots but could not find the back of the net against Wake Forest and Georgia. If the finishing improves, the Pack can easily turn these narrow losses into wins.  

With a solid foundation to build on and some other areas that are close to going from good to great, fans should be excited for what the fall could look like for NC State women’s soccer.