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August 15, 2024
Raleigh, NC– On an absolutely perfect night for soccer, the NC State Women’s Soccer team (0-0-1) played host to in-State foe Appalachian State (0-0-1) in the home opener at Dail Soccer Complex. The Mountaineers finished the 2023 season at (9-6-3, 6-2-2) and earned second place in the SunBelt conference. The meeting was just the second of all time between the two programs with the Wolfpack winning the only prior match in 2012 3-1.
Head Coach Tim Santoro enters his 12th year with the Wolfpack and is 7-2- in season openers. Head coach of the Mountaineers, Aimee Haywood enters her 3rd season at the helm. The Wolfpack return 17 players including Jaiden Thomas coming off a brutal injury in 2023 that saw her season end early.
The first half saw both teams trading pressures that would ultimately end in a 0-0 score at the half. Stats from the first half include:
The Second half ended with more of the same as both teams continued to trade pressures as both teams found it hard to find any cracks in the defense. Newcomer Alivia Kelly, who is a graduate transfer from New Hampshire, was stellar in her backline play fending off several Mountaineer attacks. Junior goalkeeper Olivia Pratapas was stellar in net again earning the shutout. Freshman Janet Okeke provided 2 scoring opportunities in the second half. Unfortunately, neither of them landed in the back of the net. The Pack was able to continue to get good pressure though in the home opener and just missed netting the go-ahead goal several times throughout the match.
Head Coach Tim Santoro met with the media following the draw and was overall pleased with the energy he saw from his team:
“Our attack needs some work, but you know that’s finding that personnel and we haven’t found that yet what the combination is going to be. I think once we do that, I think we can be pretty tight. “
Santoro was very pleased with his team’s ability to work through what was a very physical first half. The team responded to the physicality of the Mountaineers by slowing the game more in the second half which allowed the Pack to control the pace better.
Next up for the Pack is a Sunday Night matchup with in-state rival East Carolina at 7 PM at Dail Soccer Park.
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