The Wolfpack women’s soccer team was defeated by the Demon Deacons, 2-1, at Dail Soccer Stadium on Thursday night. The NCSU squad held off a bombardment of scoring opportunities from the Wake Forest shooters but could not manage to prevent two of the 22 Deacon shots from finding the net.
Senior goalkeeper Kim Kern, who had a respectable 10 saves on the evening, blamed herself for allowing the game-winning goal.
“I might have had good saves but I should have had at least one of those two goals,” Kern said. “I’ll have it next time.”
Despite having some communication issues, Kern also praised the work of her back four defenders.
“They always help me out, without the four of them, we would never win a game,” Kern said. “We need to work on some communication things and working together against teams that are playing the long ball.
“None of us are communicating enough; at least, not as much as we should be.”
The first and second half seemed to show two different sides of Wolfpack soccer. Right from the start, NCSU took control of the game while maintaining the majority of the possession in the first 30 minutes.
In the 19th minute, while on a run down the left wing, senior defender Alex Berger launched a floating overhead throughball into the penalty area. With perfect timing, freshman forward Stephanie Bronson made a diagonal run through the Deacon’s failed attempt at an off-sides trap and, with a lofted header over a rooted goalkeeper, put the Pack in the lead at 1-0.
After Bronson’s team-leading sixth goal of the season, State began to rest on their laurels, seemingly satisfied with a one-goal lead. For the remainder of the game, the team only produced slight sprinkles of scoring opportunities wasted on- and mostly off-frame. The lapse in attack-minded style-of-play came back to bite the Pack in the 36th minute when Wake Forest forward Katie Stengel’s bullet of a shot was deflected by Kern into the goal box, where the Deacon’s Rachel Nuzzolese was waiting to produce a clean-up header to send the game into halftime tied.
The Deacons came out for the second half determined to win, with 13 shots, eight of which were on goal. Kern managed to save seven of the eight possible goal scoring opportunities but could not keep the second half scoring sheet any cleaner than the first. In the 70th minute, Wake Forest midfielder Riley Ridgik flicked the ball over Kern after a free kick delivery from Deacon defender Jackie Logue was not cleared while inside the penalty area, resulting in the game winning goal. Coach Steve Springthorpe described this situation as a “mental lapse” that he will have the team focusing on before Sunday’s game at Maryland.
“I think it’s just that,” Springthorpe said. “When the game is on the line, and we’re competing, having a mental lapse. We need to know that we need to buckle down when they have a set piece and the game is even. We have to win that ball. We have to be the first to that ball because it’s that important.
“We just have to be smarter on how we defend.”
Despite the loss, Springthorpe saw positive aspects of his squad’s performance and will head to Maryland with a new focus.
“I thought we played well,” Springthorpe said. “This is a couple of games in a row where we’ve had periods of good play. We’ve been dangerous; we’ve scored a goal in every game so far. From an attack point of view, we’re able to get forward and make things happen. We had good portions of the play but we have to be able to sustain that a bit longer.”
The Pack heads to College Park on Sunday, in search of their first conference win of the season, against the Terrapins.
