After failing to claim victory in a combined 15 conference games, the Wolfpack and Tigers have run out of time to finally locate the ACC win column.
Each team will have a golden opportunity to do so tonight at Dail Soccer Stadium as State (9-6-2, 0-5-2 ACC) takes on Clemson (5-10-0, 0-8-0 ACC) in a battle to stay alive on its quest to reach the conference tournament.
The Pack, who was 8-2 at one time, has struggled to keep up with other ACC powerhouses and is searching for its first conference win following two straight loses to Virginia and Virginia Tech. Clemson has lost 10 consecutive games and last recorded a win on Sept. 4 against Northeastern.
Coach Steve Springthorpe , who has yet to lead a team to the ACC championships in his three years at State, felt it was a must-win game for the team against Clemson.
“We are approaching the game as its must-win for us,” Springthorpe said. “Right now, unfortunately we are in a position where two ties in our conference isn’t going to get us where we need to go. So, we have to find way to get a win. We’ve got three games left, so we need to come out and do whatever we can to find a way to get a victory on our home field.”
Springthorpe admitted that he was not reading too much into Clemson’s losing streak and looked at that as a hurdle considering Clemson will be more desperate than ever to get a victory.
“I don’t honestly look much into that [a team’s losing streak],” Springthorpe said. “We don’t even talk about that to our team as far as what another team is doing losing streak-wise. However, I did tell them this though that Clemson is going to be hungry for a win.
“You are going to find two teams who are a little bit desperate right now trying to get a victory in the conference.”
Forward Megan Proper felt everyone on the team knew the importance of the game, and they needed to take full advantage of the opportunities on hand in order to come back with something from the game.
“For us, it has to be a win, so a lot of us are just ready to compete and get a victory,” Proper said. “We all know the importance of the game, so we will all be on the same page. It’s just going to be whether or not we can come out and play strong and put our chances away.”
Senior defender Alex Berger, who is the second highest scorer on the team with five goals, has started every single game this season. Berger said she felt that in order to progress to the level of the other teams in the conference, the team had to show more heart and dedication.
“We just need to play with more emotion, desire and passion for 90 minutes,” Berger said. “We’ll play in spurts, but we need to just maintain that level of energy for 90 minutes. We are a good team but we just haven’t been able to put it together all season. But we have come close a few times.”
Berger felt the entire team, which has struggled with consistency issues all season, needed to rise to ensure the team had something to show for all of the hard work they have put in this season.
“Our team as a whole needs to step up because our defenders get involved in our attack so we just all need to raise our level, and we really need this win,” Berger said. “We all know what’s at stake, we just need to come out hard and get that win.”
Springthorpe remained optimistic of the team receiving an invite to play in the NCAA tournament provided it stuck to its guns in the business end of the regular season.
“Our team, right now, is good,” Springthorpe said. “We are 9-6-2, and I think we are still being considered for the NCAA tournament. We have three games left in the conference, and if we win those three games we’ll be in a very good position to still get into our conference tournament.
“I think even if we don’t get into the tournament, we are still going to very much be considered for a NCAA tournament selection because of where our conference is right now.”
