TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Clemson senior Deliah Arrington, the 2002 ACC Player of the Year, scored two goals to lead the Tigers to a decisive 5-2 victory over NC State in the first match of the 2002 ACC Soccer Championship at the Seminole Soccer Complex. With the win, the Tigers, who outshot NC State 16-9 in the match, improved to 13-6 on the year while the Wolfpack fell to 10-8-1. The Tigers advanced to semifinal action and will play the winner of today's Virginia/Duke match on Friday at 5:00 p.m.

"I got some good crosses and good assists from my teammates today," Arrington, who has 17 goals on the year, said. "All I had to do was put my foot on it. I think we thought going into it that this would be a tough game, since we played them a few weeks ago. It was a little surprising that we came away with that huge of a win."

Clemson came out firing and outshot NC State 11-2 in the first half and had a 2-0 advantage at the break. Arrington scored the match's first goal with a header at the near post at the 15:18 mark on a right flank from sophomore Paige Ledford. She struck again just before halftime when she dribbled a pass from senior Rachel Gallegos past the goalkeeper at the 44:43 mark.

The Wolfpack responded in the second half with a goal just one minute and 35 seconds in. On a pass from the left side from senior Jenny Pearce, senior Jordan Allison beat the goalkeeper for the score. It didn't take long for Clemson to regain control of the match as the Tigers scored three straight goals. Gallegos, who had an assist on Clemson's second goal in the first half, scored on a penalty kick at 49:16. Senior Cindy Mullinix followed with a header from eight yards out on an assist from junior Allison Mitchell at the 60th minute.

Ten minutes later at the 70:57 mark, junior Sarah Heck scored on a rebound goal after a diving save by NC State senior goalkeeper Gretchen Lear. The Wolfpack would strike again when sophomore Annika Schmidt, who had two of NC State's three shots on goal, scored on a free kick from 20 yards out with just under nine minutes to go.

The Tigers, who had beaten NC State 2-0 in the regular season, have now scored a total of 17 goals in their last three matches. Today's five goals, however, is the most Clemson has scored in an ACC match this year.

"You don't expect to score five goals in any ACC games, let alone a conference tournament game where the intensity is picked up another level," Clemson head coach Todd Bramble said. "It helped us out a lot playing that team two weeks ago because we were able to make some adjustments. We put on a great performance and scored some great goals and our execution of the game plan on both sides of the ball was very good today."