CARY, N.C. - Ronnie Bouemboue scored two NC State goals, including the game-winner midway through the second half, as the eighth-seeded Wolfpack defeated ninth-seeded Virginia Tech 3-1 in the opening round of the 2008 ACC Men's Soccer Championship on Tuesday at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.

NC State (9-8-1) advanced to Wednesday's 5:30 p.m. quarterfinal match, where the Pack will face top-seeded and top-ranked Wake Forest (17-0-1).

"It's a wonderful opportunity," Wolfpack head coach George Tarantini said. "Just imagine, we're getting ready to play the No. 1 team in the country. It's one of the greatest things that can happen. We're playing the defending national champions, a wonderful team. They've got speed, they've got talent, they're well coached. It's a wonderful problem we're facing."

Tuesday's win was NC State's fourth straight and its sixth in seven matches.

"Our players decided in the middle of the season that they wanted to win -despite what anyone said, despite what anyone told them - and that's what happened," Tarantini said. "We've become a family. We play with emotion, we try hard, and that's been the difference."

With the score tied at 1-1, Bouemboue took a pass from Kris Byrd, worked for an isolated shot against Hokie goalkeeper Thomas St. Germain and drove home a shot from 10 yards out to put the Wolfpack in front with 22:41 remaining.

Byrd found Bouemboue for the assist after taking a pass from Chrystel Bakong. The same three players had combined for NC State's first goal at the 12:31 mark of the first half, when Bakong took the cross from Byrd and found Bouemboue for a 6-yard header.

The 1-0 lead stood until just under 28 minutes remained in the match, when Virginia Tech (5-13-1) tied the score on Hunter Cheatham took a pass from Luis Yamashita. But Bouemboue answered for the Wolfpack less than five minutes later, then assisted on a breakaway goal by Frederico Nachmann with 45 seconds left that wrapped up the scoring.

"It ended just the way most of our games ended - with us banging on the door, giving a good fight, but in the end not being able to get that goal or that keeper shutout that we needed to move on," Virginia Tech coach Oliver Weiss said. "North Carolina State did more. They did what they had to do to win the game, so congrats to them and good luck tomorrow in their next game."

Quarterfinal action on Wednesday will also be played on WakeMed Soccer Park's Koka Booth Stadium, while the semifinals and title game on Friday and Sunday, respectively, will be played on the main field, WakeMed Soccer Stadium.

Semifinals action will continue on Friday, Nov. 14 with games slated at 5:30 and 8 p.m. The championship game will kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16. All games are available online through ACCSelect.com, while the championship game will be nationally televised on Fox Sports Net. The ACC men's soccer awards ceremony will be immediately following the title game.