Oct. 29, 2007

No. 14 Boston College Upsets No. 3 Virginia, 1-0, In ACC Action

Freshman Natalie Crutchfield scored her second career goal late in the game as No. 14 Boston College upset No. 3 Virginia, 1-0, in an ACC match in front of 823 fans at the Newton Soccer Field on Sunday afternoon.

The Eagles earned their 10th win of the season (10-3-3) and improve to 3-3-2 in ACC play. Virginia is now 5-1-3 in the ACC and 11-2-4 overall.

Crutchfield, who earned her first start of the year, received a beautiful pass from sophomore Gina DiMartino in the box. Crutchfield collected the ball and took a quick low shot to the far post by the Virginia goalkeeper Chantel Jones (six saves) at 87:12 in the match. It was Crutchfield's second game-winning goal of the season, while DiMartino notched her team leading fifth assist.

Boston College kept Jones busy all day as they had eight shots, six in the second half. Crutchfield's goal is only the fifth goal let up by Jones this season. BC's Hannah Cerrone and Brianna Wilson-Byrne led the offensive attack with two shots each off of free kicks. The Eagles defense contained the Virginia offense allowing only three shots, one in the second half.

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Johnson scores golden goal in Hokies' 2-1 OT victory over Maryland

For the first time since the Hokies opened Virginia Tech Soccer Stadium in 2003 with an overtime win over American University, the women's soccer team recorded a golden goal off Julian Johnson's foot in the 94th minute in a thrilling come-from-behind 2-1 victory over Maryland in front of 1,011 fans Sunday night at Ludwig Field.

The win inches the Hokies closer to .500 at 6-7-3 overall and keeps Tech alive for an ACC Tournament berth with eight points off a 2-5-2 conference record. The Terrapins fall to 5-8-3 and 0-7-1 in league play.

Currently, Tech is within reach of Boston College (11 pts.), Duke (10 pts.) and Clemson (8 pts.) for a trip to Disney World. However, those three schools have two conference games remaining. As a result of only having Boston College left, Tech will need help from those teams' opponents and a win over Boston College to earn a tournament berth.

Tech's two ACC wins and eight points with one game remaining are the most in a season since finishing with a 4-5 record and 12 points in 2004. Also, the come-from-behind victory was Tech's first since defeating Wake Forest 3-2 in 2004.

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Blue Devils & Seminoles Battle To 1-1 Tie

For the third consecutive contest, the Duke women's soccer team played for 110 minutes, coming away with a 1-1 tie against 14th-ranked Florida State. Duke's record now stands at 7-3-6 overall and 2-2-4 in the ACC, while the Seminoles move to 10-4-3, 5-2-2.

While dominating the first half with a 10-3 shot advantage, the Blue Devils were unable to capitalize on their scoring opportunities. The first chance came just over four minutes into the match as Kelly Hathorn missed high. Just three minutes later, off a corner kick by Jane Alukonis, a header by Christie McDonald and a shot by Kendall Bradley off the subsequent rebound were both saved by Florida State goalie Erin McNulty.

Florida State opened the scoring nearly 16 minutes into the second half as Mami Yamaguchi fed a through ball to Amanda DaCosta at the top of the box. DaCosta was able to slip the ball by Duke goalkeeper Allison Lipsher to give the Seminoles a 1-0 lead. The Seminoles then missed an opportunity to gain some breathing room as Rachel Lim's shot on an open net sailed high.

Duke regained the momentum and scored the equalizer with just under 10 minutes left in regulation. Meaghan FitzGerald carried the ball down the middle of the field and found Elisabeth Redmond on the left side of the box. Redmond's shot found the upper-right corner of the net. Redmond, who is from Morristown, N.J., now owns a team-best six goals and 21 points on the season.

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Vera Leads NC State Over Francis Marion, 3-0

Leading scorer Lindsay Vera scored once and assisted on another goal in leading the NC State women's soccer team to a 3-0 win over Francis Marion on Sunday afternoon at SAS Soccer Field No. 2.

The Wolfpack wasted no time in getting on the board in the first minute of play. A Katie Ruiz corner kick bounded off a host of pursuers that found the foot of Briana Cunningham, who beautifully one-timed her shot into the upper-left corner of the net just 57 seconds into the match.

Vera made it 2-0 at the 9:59 mark with her eighth goal of the season. Her 20-yard blast went into the upper-right corner past Francis Marion keeper Jacque Sutphin.

In the second half, Vera was the distributor this time for the Wolfpack. She deftly placed her pass onto the foot of a hard-charging Nadia Aboulhosn form the left flank. The NC State freshman was one-on-one with Sutphin and she beat the keeper to the low side for her second goal of the year.

Freshman keeper Rachel Barnette earned her first collegiate win in net for the Pack. She did not need to make a save all afternoon in 90 minutes of action.