RALEIGH, N.C. – Junior Lindsay Vera recorded her first
career hat trick to lead the NC State women’s soccer team to a season-opening
5-1 victory over Davidson Friday evening at Method Road Soccer Stadium.
Vera, an All-ACC nominee last season, broke open a tie
game with three goals in a 5:01 span in the second half. The Wolfpack have not
lost its season-opening game in seven years and improve to 8-1 all-time against
the Wildcats.
The two clubs struggled to gain an upper hand in the opening
20 minutes of the second half, before Vera exploded on the scene. The
game-winner came at the 67:24 mark when freshman Kara Baldy crossed a ball from
the right into the box, which was one-touched by Chantalle Dugas over to Vera,
who cleaned up right in front of the goal mouth.
Dugas again found Vera for a one-timer at the 70:36 mark for
a 3-1 NC State lead. The most exciting goal of the match came next when Vera
blasted a shot into the upper-left corner for a commanding 4-1 advantage in the
73rd minute. Baldy picked up her third assist of the match, while
freshman Allyson Santilli earned the primary assist on the goal.
Freshman Caitlin Goodman later cleaned up a breakaway
attempt by Baldy with her first collegiate goal in the 89th minute.
Fittingly, senior captain Jessica O'Rourke scored the first
Wolfpack goal of the season to get 2007 off to a good start. Freshman defender
Alex Berger began the play by sending a nifty pass from center half into the
box. O’Rourke collected the pass and deftly placed a shot over the Davidson
goalie for a 1-0 Wolfpack lead at the 38:34 mark of the first half.
The lead was short lived, however, as Davidson reserve
forward Kyri Bye-Nagel knocked home a deflection in front of the goal to knot
the score at 1-1 heading to halftime.
Davidson had goalie Bevin English to thank for keeping the
Pack from scoring early as the home team dominated the opening 20 minutes of
action. The Wildcats didn’t even muster a shot until 20 minutes were underway
in the half.
Dugas collected a pass from O’Rourke and was one-on-one with
the keeper, but only a diving save by English kept the game scoreless 15
minutes into the match.
Sophomore Meredith Parrilla placed a beautiful header off a
Katie Ruiz corner kick three minutes later into the lower-left corner, but a
Wildcat defender booted away the scoring opportunity.
In the 23rd minute, Vera was one-on-one with
English and she was once again up to the task with a diving save to her right.
NC State tallied 24 shots in the match, compared to 10 for
Davidson. English made 12 saves, while Wolfpack keeper Sydney Little made five
saves in the win.
The Wolfpack are right back in action Sunday at 1 pm against
William & Mary at Method Road Soccer Stadium.
Courtesy: NC State
