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Still Going Strong - Laura Weinberg & Duke Rose To The Challenge Against Wake Forest on Thursday

Wake Forest 0 – 2 (Weinberg 72′, 81′) Duke

Laura Weinberg’s late brace gave Duke a 2-0 win in a North Carolina derby against Wake Forest to boost their title hopes while severely damaging their defeated opponent’s. While one of the shorelines in the middle of the match was the return of Kelly Cobb from injury for forty minutes off the bench, Weinberg ensured she’d be the one leaving with the headlines with a pair of strikes a little over eight minutes apart to seal the points. While the visitors maintained a healthy shot advantage over their opponents into the halftime break, they also had failed to put a shot on goal in what looked like a defensive stalemate between two very talented teams. Weinberg would net the match winning goal though with a little under twenty minutes left, slaloming through a pair of defenders as she cut to goal before snapping a shot off that left Aubrey Bledsoe rooted to the spot. The sophomore would lock up the win in the eighty-first minute after taking a pass from Mollie Pathman and finishing coolly for her seventh of the season. Wake would go close to getting a consolation in the dying minutes as Rachel Nuzzolese hit the post after beating Campbell. This was a very good performance from the Blue Devils, coming out on the road and putting a pair of goals up on a side that had shut out four straight ACC opponents. Getting Cobb back is obviously a positive sign, but if Weinberg and Pathman can heat up, this Duke team is going to be very dangerous in November and possibly beyond. Though Wake was without Katie Stengel again, Duke still did a great job of stifling the Demon Deacon attack. Both games remaining are certainly winnable, and the Blue Devils will want to keep fate in their own hands as they chase the league title while hoping that North Carolina slips up along the way.

It’s been two games without Katie Stengel, and the results are hardly promising for a Wake Forest side that has seen its offense grind to a near halt for much of the last month. The Demon Deacons were already beginning to sputter a bit before Stengel went down but have now scored just two goals in their last five matches, both against Virginia. Wake’s excellent defense has bailed them out in previous matches, but there was no such luck on this night with the home side offering little besides Nuzzolese’s shot off the post. The offense looks way, way too one dimensional with Stengel out, and this Demon Deacon side could be on shaky ground if their offensive talisman misses a significant amount of time. Better news came from the return of defender Jackie Logue, though she only played forty minutes, all in the first half. If Stengel is still sidelined, having that mean defense at full strength may be Wake’s only hope of significant postseason advancement. With or without Stengel, Wake should be able to handle Clemson on Sunday, but Boston College in the finale on the road could be brutal without their scoring ace.

Boston College 0 – 1 (Ohai 68′) North Carolina

Kealia Ohai’s second half winner gave North Carolina a crucial three points in the hunt for another league title at Boston College in front of a packed house. North Carolina would tally the only goal of the match after a corner kick wasn’t properly cleared with the ball being cycled back into the box by Caitlin Ball where Rachel Wood was on hand to flick the ball to an unmarked Ohai on the right side of the box. The sophomore would rip a shot into the upper-left corner that BC keeper Jillian Mastroianni wasn’t able to stop. While some questioned whether the Carolina frontwoman was offside, any protests mattered not as the goal stood and UNC had the lead. Both sides had gone close in the first half with Crystal Dunn’s shot shaving the bar, while Stephanie McCaffrey had fired wide from a few yards outside the area for BC. The home side had also nearly taken the lead in the second half when Kristen Mewis’ header was pushed onto the bar by Anna Sieloff with the rebound being sliced wide. Mewis would again have chances to get BC on the board after Ohai’s goal but would be off-target once more. UNC didn’t put on a dominant performance, but they still were good value for their win despite only putting four of seventeen shots on goal. You have to give credit to the Carolina defense for completely shutting down Victoria DiMartino and limiting BC to just a single shot on goal on the night. If you’re a UNC fan, you have to be encouraged with the progress the team’s making as it gets closer to crunch time. Ohai is beginning to heat up after a slow start, and the defense is performing quite well with four straight clean sheets and five in six matches. They still have two more road matches, but both are certainly winnable on tonight’s evidence, meaning another league title is in sight for UNC.

That’s now four straight losses for Boston College, and questions of a crisis in confidence must surely be arising, despite the losses being to strong, NCAA Tournament bound opposition. The Eagles are well and truly out of the ACC title race now and need to pick up wins to have a chance at a top four spot in the league and hosting rights for a quarterfinal. Though it seems unlikely, this team is still also in danger of missing the ACC Tournament if they don’t get a result in the final two matches. All four of those losses have been by a single goal, while the team’s been shut out in three of four in that stretch. The offense, Victoria DiMartino especially, has been a major disappointment, and if they don’t get things going soon, it’s going to be a short postseason for the Eagles. You’d think they’d be able to handle NC State on Sunday, but there’s no telling how this team’s going to react after being embroiled in such a losing streak.

Virginia 4 (Miller 13′, 61′, Roberts 31′, Brian 54′) – 0 Virginia Tech

Virginia crushed state rivals Virginia Tech, 4-0, behind a pair of goals from Caroline Miller to keep their slim ACC title hopes alive. While most categories on the stat sheet didn’t reflect the drubbing the visitors took, the Cavs used a masterclass of finishing and three world class goals to sink their state rivals. Virginia started the fireworks a few minutes before the quarter hour mark when Caroline Miller sent a screamer from twenty-five yards into the back of the net after kissing the underside of the bar on the way over the line. Julia Roberts doubled Virginia’s advantage right after the half-hour mark, curling a free kick over the wall and past Dayle Colpitts’ outstretched hand, the ball nestling in the upper-left corner of the goal. VT would be spurned near the end of the first half as a header was cleared off the line before Chantel Jones made a great reflex save on the follow-up. The Cavs would end the game as a spectacle right out of the break as Morgan Brian put an unbelievably powerful header into the side paneling from Julia Roberts’ deep cross. Miller would add one more off of some fancy footwork to complete the rout. A wildly impressive performance for Virginia, who scored some eye popping goals en route to a thoroughly lopsided win. When the Cavs are clicking like this, they’re a joy to watch and very dangerous to play against. Caroline Miller has turned into a first class striker, while Julia Roberts has been deadly on set pieces. The Cavs should be able to handle Miami (FL) in their finale and will be hoping for other results to go their way in the ACC title race. If the youngsters can keep their nerve in the postseason, then these Cavs have a decent shot of making it to Kennesaw in December.

After winning three straight against the bottom half of the league, Virginia Tech were welcomed back to Earth with a cold dose of reality by their state rivals on Thursday night. There’s not a lot of teams that could’ve stopped most of Virginia’s goals, but still, to have lost by four goals has to be a real shock to the system for this Hokie team. VT still needs some points to totally be assured of their ACC Tournament fate, but getting them could be difficult with North Carolina and Florida State to face, though both have to come to Blacksburg. Holding the tiebreaker over Miami (FL) is vital though and may ultimately see the Hokies into the ACC Tournament in a few weeks.

Auburn 0 – 0 Georgia

A rivalry known for its offense in recent years went defensive as Auburn and Georgia played out to a disappointing stalemate on The Plains on Thursday night. The match was fairly even throughout save for the final ten minutes of extra time where Auburn pushed doggedly for a winner. The Tigers probably came closest to nabbing the three points near the end of the second half when a Julie King header from Katy Frierson’s corner went down and off the foot of full-back Nikki Hill whose panicky clearance attempt went off the underside of the bar and somehow bounced away from the goalmouth, with the follow-up shot blocked. The Tigers went close again in the second half of extra time, with Mary Coffed being denied on a 1v1 against Ashley Baker, with a Georgia defender sweeping up afterward to end the opportunity. Given some of the chances that fell their way, the home side will be very frustrated to have not taken home all three points. The Tigers certainly had the better looks and carved out more clear cut opportunities, though on the whole, neither side did a whole lot to that effect. Still, the defense held firm for much of the night, and Amy Howard wasn’t forced to make any huge saves to keep her side in it, showing how well the backline played. Auburn still has a chance at a potential national seed, but they probably need to win their last two on the road before heading into Orange Beach to give themselves a leg up on the competition.

Georgia can have relatively few complaints about a share of the points. They played Auburn to a near standstill on the stat sheet but created few clear cut opportunities. This team is very, very reliant on Alexa Newfield for scoring, and while she again had the bulk of the team’s shots and shots on goal, the rest of the team just had a single shot on goal over the whole match. If someone can keep Newfield off the scoreboard like Auburn did on this night, it’s very tough to see where the offense is going to come from for this Georgia side. Equally worrying was the absence of senior center-back Bailey Powell. The big presence in the defense is vital in the back, and considering this team has had serious set piece defense issues, being without her for an extended length of time could be costly. Despite the draw, Georgia still has two winnable matches at home and could be poised to strike in the title race should Florida and South Carolina slip down the stretch.

LSU 1 (Boudreau 18′) – 4 (Lukens 35′, 51′, Fahey 66′, Holland 68′) South Carolina

South Carolina took advantage of lax set piece defense to deal LSU their worst home loss in half a decade and take command of their SEC fate. Ironically, LSU had taken the lead early on on a set piece of their own when Taryne Boudreau rifled home a free kick from twenty yards that set the Baton Rouge crowd buzzing. The nightmare would begin though just ten minutes from the break when Ellen Fahey flicked Kayla Grimsley’s header to the far post where Arielle Lukens was on hand to head in her first career goal to knot things up at 1-1. Hopes of a halftime revival for the home side were put to bed early in the second half when Lukens popped up again to head home Andi Romness’ corner kick for the eventual match winner. The pain was just beginning though, as Ellen Fahey headed home from six yards off of Andi Romness’ free kick from midfield, to be followed by Lolly Holland finishing off a through ball from Kayla Grimsley. South Carolina’s bread and butter this season has been set pieces, and they vivisected the Tigers with them in this one en route to a huge win in a series that has traditionally been very tightly contested. South Carolina is red hot right now, having won six in a row, and having beaten five of those six by multiple goals. In the last six matches, the Gamecocks have scored eighteen goals and conceded just three on their way to a potential SEC title. The offense appears to have finally evolved to being more than Kayla Grimsley, and this group is as dangerous as any in the country on set pieces. Arkansas in Columbia should be another notch on Carolina’s belt as long as they aren’t looking too far ahead to a potential title decider against Florida next Friday night.

It’s hard to not view this as a disastrous, potentially morale crushing defeat for LSU. The Tigers appeared to have things set up nicely with home advantage before a potential title showdown with Florida on the road on Sunday, but things came up snake eyes in a big way on Thursday. The set piece defense meltdown was absolutely unexplainable for a purported title contender. The Gamecocks did a reasonable job of keeping most of the Tiger threats besides Boudreau quiet, and the game was essentially over with Fahey’s goal in the second half. The big worry now is that LSU may not be able to recover mentally in time for Sunday’s clash with Florida in Gainesville. Beating the Gators on the road has been nigh-impossible for any SEC team in the past half decade, and most of those teams probably weren’t worrying about having just blown the title a few days earlier. Given this team’s road form for much of the season, they’re going to need something special on Sunday to get themselves back in the title race.

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