The Wolfpack women’s soccer team went down to No. 8 Virginia, 1-0, in sudden-death overtime at Dail Soccer Stadium Thursday night, despite a strong effort and quality defending in the first two halves of regulation play. State was able to keep the potent Cavaliers offense in check for the majority of the competition until senior goalkeeper Kim Kern was beaten at the end of the first period of extended play.
Despite losing the game in overtime, Coach Steve Springthorpe was pleased with the defense’s performance and their ability to execute their game plan.
“I like what I saw,” Springthorpe said. “I liked how we defended. Our plan coming in was to frustrate them and limit their opportunities. They had 15 shots, but a lot of them were long range and they didn’t get behind us. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to generate more offensive opportunities. That was our game plan and we did it.”
For the initial part of the first half, N.C . State struggled to maintain offensive possession and gave the Cavaliers control of the ball most of the game. When Virginia stole the ball from State, they were able to quickly counter attack by dribbling and passing the ball to their offensive playmakers .
In the first half, Virginia got the ball out to the flanks on offense, and then attempted to get behind the defense and create scoring chances in front of the Wolfpack net. In the second half, the Cavaliers had all seven shots of the half. They played a keep-away style to try to break down the defense. Once again, in the offensive zone, they performed the same strategy as the first half.
In overtime, it was more of the same, except this time the Cavaliers finally got past the sturdy Wolfpack defense. About 25 feet from the goal in the center of the field, Virginia’s Lauren Alwine played a throughball to Morgan Brian. Brian got behind the State defense with the ball and put in for the Wahoos in the 99th minute of the game.
After the game, freshman defender Shelli Spamer went over her squad’s defensive strategy.
“We doubled up the wingers so they couldn’t dribble across,” Spamer said. We dropped back a center mid[fielder] on [defense] so there wasn’t a gap.”
Spamer also identified Virginia’s plan of attack as the Cavaliers attempted to pull State’s back four out of position.
“They tried to draw defenders and play throughballs ,” Spamer said. “It worked for them a few times, but we held them other than that.”
Senior forward Kristina Argiroff was all over the field for the Wolfpack . Argiroff started the game at forward and she was effective at winning balls out of the air. Later in the game, Argiroff moved back to midfield and was able to track down her assignment and bridge the gap between the offense and the defense. Argiroff was proud with the energy the team played with but highlighted the team’s offensive struggles.
“We really hustled tonight,” Argiroff said. “We didn’t complete many passes, but we did a great job tracking on defense; we hustled and tackled. “
The Wolfpack only had two shots in the entire match, both of which came in the first half. Argiroff cited their lack of success on the offensive end due to their inability to maintain the ball.
“We have to work on possessing it,” Argiroff said. “We did a good job getting it out, but we mostly just kick it and that doesn’t work against a lot of ACC schools, so we just have to work on possession and getting it wide.”
Virginia has now won 16 out of the past 17 games against the Pack.
State hopes to get back into the win column Sunday at home against Virginia Tech at 1 p.m .
