CARY, N.C. - After engaging in a scoreless battle with second-seeded Florida State for a 110 full minutes, Virginia Tech prevailed on penalty kicks to score the first upset of the Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Soccer Championship quarterfinal round on Wednesday night.

The seventh-seeded Hokies held a 4-2 edge in PKs - including the clincher by senior Kim Hickey - to advance to Friday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal game against Virginia or Wake Forest. With their performance against the nationally-fifth ranked Seminoles, Virginia Tech (10-7-3) continued to build off the momentum of last Sunday's win over nationally-ranked Duke that closed out the regular season.

"I am so proud of the team right now," Virginia Tech coach Kelly Cagle said. "This is a huge win for us. Our momentum seems to get better as the season goes on. We were diligent and batted all game long."

Florida State coach Mark Krikorian concurred with Cagle's assessment of her squad.

"I think in the end it was justice," Krikorian said. "I thought Virginia Tech played with much more heart, much more enthusiasm throughout the game."

The Seminoles (14-2-3) made an early exit from the tournament after reaching the finals each of the previous two seasons. The Hokies became the first team seeded sixth or lower to win an ACC Championship quarterfinal game since the tournament returned to an eight-team format in 2005.

"Our program is young and still building, but we're doing a lot of firsts this year," Cagle said. "PKs were a first for us, but you wouldn't know it by what the girls did out there tonight."

Both teams missed prime chances to score in regulation. Kristin Carden made three stellar saves in goal for the Hokies. Kate Milstead countered with four saves for FSU, and forward Tiffany McCarty was credited with two key team saves.

But after 90 minutes of regulation and two overtime periods, Virginia Tech finally found a way to consistently find the net. First Stephanie Hylton got a shot past Kimberly Diaz, who had replaced Milstead in goal. Then Laurie Beth Puglisi, Kelly Lynch and finally Hickey followed suit.

"Credit to those guys for finding a way to move on and advance," FSU's Krikorian said of the Hokies. "Good luck to them."