The NC State women’s soccer team suffered another heartbreaking 2-1 loss at the hand of the No. 5 Virginia Cavaliers on Sunday, Sept. 26 at Dail Soccer Field for the team’s fourth consecutive loss.
The Wolfpack (4-5-2, 0-3 ACC) was in a 1-1 tie for almost the entirety of the second half before the Cavaliers (10-1, 3-0 ACC) broke the stalemate with under a minute left to win the match.
“We’re in a tough stretch,” said head coach Tim Santoro. “We’re playing good teams and we’re as good as all of them. We’re losing games late. The young team needs a win. Once we win, we’re gonna win some more. We were just as good as a really good team today, and that’s a real kick in the stomach.”
Within the first 10 minutes, the Cavs took the ball down the field after a missed shot by sophomore forward Jameese Joseph and scored on a shot from just outside the penalty area to take a 1-0 lead.
The Pack was able to respond with just over five minutes left in the half as senior forward Denae Antoine took a pass from freshman forward Mia Vaughan, breaking a defender’s ankles in the process and scored on a shot to the right post from just outside the penalty area to even the score 1-1.
“I was just like, ‘Let me just try and hit this and see what happens,’” Antoine said. “When I hit it, I didn’t know that it was gonna go in, but the further I saw it go, I was like, ‘I think that might be going in.’”
The first half also featured a couple of excellent saves by freshman goalkeeper Maria Echezaretta, one of which was a great diving save and another that was a great sliding save, keeping the Cavs from scoring another goal. Echezaretta finished with five saves.
The two teams were tied 1-1 at halftime and remained that way for almost the entire second half. The Pack outshot the Cavs 5-2 for the first 35 minutes of the half, but with just under a minute left, the Cavs scored on a header after an initial shot went off the woodwork, putting them up 2-1.
The Pack got up one more shot from redshirt junior defender Lulu Guttenberger, but it missed, making the Cavs win 2-1, handing the Pack yet another heartbreaking loss against a top team.
All five of the Pack’s losses this season have been by one goal, three of which have come on goals scored with less than a minute left and another coming on a goal scored with five minutes left. This now marks the Pack’s third consecutive loss to begin conference play.
“Right now, we’re 0-3 in the conference, and we’re not an 0-3 team,” Santoro said. “It’s hard on them because they know they’re playing well. There’s not a lot to fix. We’re tweaking things and the kids are really committing themselves, it’s just we’re not getting the results. It’s a tough stretch, but we’ll get through it.”
While the Pack is 0-3 in the ACC, the team has proven it is capable of hanging around with some of the best teams in the country, and going through a tough stretch like this may eventually pay its dividends.
“Our team still believes in what we’re doing,” Antoine said. “We just need to get another goal. … We have a lot more experience than a lot of teams; we just have to keep going. We’re a great team, we just have to find the results.”
Next up, the Pack hosts Notre Dame on Friday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. The match will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.
