The NC State women’s soccer team will travel to Minneapolis and take on Minnesota Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Championship after receiving an at-large bid.
The Wolfpack (10-8-1, 4-5-1 ACC) will make its first tourney appearance since 1996 after coming off its best season in recent memory.
The 2016 season has been a remarkable turnaround for State following two straight years of winless conference play. After starting off the season 7-2, including a road win against UNC-Chapel Hill, the Pack fought its way through a brutal conference schedule to finish eighth in the ACC and qualify for its first ACC Championship since 2006 and earn double-digit wins for the first time since 2011.
The Pack fell to top-seeded Notre Dame in the first round of the ACC Championship on a late goal by the Irish, but the team’s resume was still deemed worthy of a bid to the NCAAs.
Led by a rotation of mostly underclassmen and playing without 2013 All-ACC redshirt junior Jackie Stengel for most of the season, the team still managed to produce excellent results, thanks to all-conference performers, freshmen Kia Rankin and Tziarra King. Sophomore goalkeeper Sydney Wootten also posted an excellent season, earning ACC Defensive Player of the Week multiple times during the season.
The No. 4 seed Golden Gophers (16-3-3, 7-1-3 Big Ten) finished first in their conference and defeated Rutgers to capture the Big Ten Championship. The team is currently ranked No. 8 in the coaches’ poll.
The Wolfpack will need to rely on its shooting advantage if it wants to pull the upset. The team outshot its opponents 243-188 on the season and outscored them 32-22. However, Minnesota has outshot its opponents by an even larger margin, 375-209, while also scoring 48 goals and allowing just 12 on the season.
Minnesota boasts a stout defense led by Big Ten Defender of the Year and first-team All-Big Ten selection Rashida Beal. Goalkeeper Tarah Hobbs and defender Maddie Gaffney earned all-conference recognitions as well. Forward Simone Kolander also took home all-conference honors and was named Big Ten Forward of the Year.
For the Pack, sophomore Ella Bonner has been solid on the backline. With Wootten in the goal, the match has the potential to turn into a defensive battle.
The Wolfpack is 9-10-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, advancing past the first round eight times overall. The last time the team was in the tourney, it lost to Florida in the first round in 1996, just a year after advancing to the third round in 1995 before falling to Southern Methodist University.
The first round matchup will take place at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in Minneapolis and is set to kick off at 7 p.m. The winner of the match will move on to the second round and play the winner of California and Pepperdine.
