I have not watched them play but are they actually that bad? Statistically they don’t seem terrible. Outshot Western Carolina 23-6. Lost to Michigan State 0-3 but shot count was 11-10.
When you are an ACC team and are 0-4-1 on a schedule that includes 4 non-power 4 teams, that is certainly very bad. Even Syracuse hasn't accomplished that feat. Also, shot counts can be seriously misleading without context. Outside of 1 chance gifted to them by MSU, none of their shots would be what I considered great chances. MSU's chances on the other hand were of much better quality. I thought Michigan St. was a significantly better team in every department despite the shot count. I would guess this is a little rougher start than the staff thought for their first year. The ACC schedule isn't the kindest either.
As is usual during a coaching change, NC State had a bunch of players leave the program. To fill in the void the staff brought in players from their previous schools (ECU and Lenoir-Rhyne). So that is the level of player they have for a chunk of the team. Obviously, the talent there wasn't great to begin with based on their results the past couple years.
Bottom line, as I posted at the time: a poor decision by NC State to make the change. A few sub standard seasons shouldn't be a pink slip for any coach. Looking at the archives, TS was the only NC State coach to win at a good clip in many decades and made 6 NCAA (3 Sweet 16) since 2016. After the change, a few important players transfer (FSU and Auburn), almost an entire recruiting class de-commits to solid programs and the new coach's 10-12 recruits are barely playing. The admin needs to own this one.
Watched their match against Utah last night. They were lucky not to lose by 5. It’s going to be a long ACC season for them
Virginia handled Penn State easily tonight. Maggie Cagle scored 90 seconds in, before the Lions had even completed a single pass and that was enough. https://www.si.com/college/virginia...s-soccer-knocks-off-9-penn-state-01k4btmr0edt This team has a real donut up top. Meredith McDermott is NOT a top-20 caliber striker. She has lost a step, she fouls a lot, and she's prone to offsides. And Addison Halpern, reigning scholastic player of the year, with 180 goals to her name, does not look like the answer at forward. She looks much better playing the wide midfielder that Swanson wants.
Predicting the ACC tournament teams. First 4 are locks, last 2 spots will be very interesting 1. Stanford- who is better than them right now? Missing Duke and ND in league play..bummer 2. Duke 3. Notre Dame 4. Florida State Final two spot contenders. UNC Virginia VT Wake Can’t take Louisville serious with that schedule, but they are filling the net rn,
I think Miami showed some life with a 2-2 draw vs Princeton NC State vs Elon (2024 RPI 79) 0-0 actually a decent result if you look at last years RPI Syracuse vs Binghamton (2024 RPI 193) 0-0 BC vs Colgate (2024 RPI 220) Bottome 4 prediction of the ACC and the wooden spoon goes to Syracuse or NC State: BC could pick up two wins vs NC State and Syracuse Miami could win vs Syracuse Syracuse 0 wins in ACC NC State 0 wins in ACC
Sometimes it's fun to watch SEC ball. Duke and Alabama play to an entertaining 1-1 tie. Duke had boatload more possession, but that ain't Alabama's game. Duke scored their goal aided in large part by a keeper who came well off her line and was easily beaten. Bama, for their part, scored with 44 seconds remaining.
UNC fan here, so no doubt quite biased, but I think our squad is only a little worse than last year—the losses of Armstrong, Dahlien, and Gagner are significant (and the excellent Evelyn Shores tho she hardly played last season), but we've added some talented freshers (especially Kennedy and Devey) and the returning players now have a lot of experience. Not particularly worried about the Tennessee and Georgia losses — given how much player turnover there was, it's not a surprise that early games had teething problems, but Nahas has shown he can gel a squad of new players into an effective team. I'll be shocked if we don't make the tournament.
I’ll add two more teams to “contenders” for the final 2 spots in the ACC tournament. I don’t think the top 4 are going anywhere, they are locked in. 1. Stanford 2. Duke 3. Florida State 4. Notre Dame 5. UNC 6. Virginia 7. Wake 8. VT 9. Clemson 10. Miami- this could age poorly! ACC regular season starts this week, wish it was a balanced schedule…. good luck to all!
This looks right to me, with Louisville, Cal and Pitt in the unknown column just behind. Would be interesting to use cpthomas’ predictive system to determine odds of teams making it into the ACC tournament given the schedule strength disparities in league play. The six best teams overall might not all make it.
F.S.U. is hot and cold, world beaters one day, can lose to any team the next. I miss the consistency of MK.
The ACCT is as set as it's ever been: Stanford, Duke, ND, FSU, UNC, UVa. I'd also bet that four of those are in College Cup and would parlay that, the ones who aren't, lose to another one. And this trend of separation by tiers will continue due to scholarship numbers and NIL. The occasional Wake, Clemson, VT, etc will creep in but that will become less and less.
Those are the ones my system currently has in the tournament (based on actual results through 9/7 and predicted results for the remaining games).
Juicy games tonight! Duke v. Virginia FSU v Louisville- will see if Louisville is closer to contender or pretender UNC v VT - Will UNC continue its surge, which VT side will show up at home? Stanford v Clemson- will Stanford rebound and dominate?
What a night for the ACC. If you only watched the last 10 minutes of some of these games you saw plenty! Duke v Virginia- Virginia is the for real, at least based on this result. didn’t/couldn’t watch much of this game FSU v. Louisville- don’t sleep on Louisville. They did not look intimidated and made FSU uncomfortable till the end UNC v VT- UNC with a late banger for the win. VT continues to slide Stanford v Clemson- yikes, Stanford just dominated for 75 minutes but couldn’t close it out. Clemson escapes with an important point. The last 90 seconds were nuts. Cal wins Pitt rebuilding SMU/Cuse tie
You forgot maybe the most shocking result of the night…. Notre Dame needing a last minute winner to get by NC State 2-1. The Irish were actually losing that game at one point. That could’ve been disastrous for NCAA seeding purposes. Based on these results, maybe we’re in for another exciting ACC season. The top 6 teams aren’t as invincible as we thought? Maybe it was first league game jitters, but I think everyone’s been put on notice that there will be no easy games this season yet again. Gotta bring it all every game!
oh boy, you’re right…how’d i miss that one! The way the games ended up being staggered I was fortunate to see all the late goals. Some very fortunate channel surfing. I think we learned there will be no easy games for anyone in this league. I’ll stand by my top 4 because of the depth of those programs, but the last 2 teams in is up for grabs. I think the expected teams won, except maybe Stanford who still gets a point on the road. The way they won will be forgotten by tournament time though.
NC State played hard and well and put up a spirited fight against a talented Notre Dame team. The Wolfpack were under a lot of pressure for extended periods but also had four or five dangerous counterattacking opportunities, and were a bit hard done by the late Irish goal. Notre Dame has a knack for finding exceptional attacking players. Korbin Albert was amazing, and two years after she leaves early for the pros they discover Engle, who is quite the scoring talent herself: a joy to watch. Chukwa--winning goal last night--is also extremely good, and they've had a bunch of impressive talent over the last several years.
Virginia stomped Duke 3 - 1 at home. Two goals in the first 10 minutes will do that for you. This gem by Ella Carter is helping me forget about Alexis Theoret. Ella Carter let it rip and buried it in the upper 90!Hoos up 2-0 on No. 2 Duke!#GoHoos | #ALLIN pic.twitter.com/ZLkzqmEu6M— Virginia Women's Soccer (@UVAWomenSoccer) September 11, 2025
Stomped his hardly accurate. UVa played well and was helped by that second wonder goal and, especially, by that fluky headed goal to start the 2nd half from the top of the box, which took the starch out of what could have been a very interesting 2nd half. Duke had 18 shots--not typical of teams that have been "stomped."
Virginia defeated VCU handily. Interestingly, the Rams came out and pressed Virginia, well, until they tired after about 25 minutes. Playing against the press is Virginia's Achiles Heel, I think. https://www.si.com/college/virginia/virginia-women-s-soccer-controls-vcu
The first official RPI Ranking is out from the NCAA today. Here's where ACC teams stand at the halfway point of the season... 1. Virginia 4. Wake Forest 5. Duke 8. Florida State 10. Stanford 20. North Carolina 24. Notre Dame 29. Louisville 35. Clemson 48. SMU ------ (no team has made the NCAA Tournament with an RPI ranking above 57) 72. Pittsburgh 75. California 76. Miami 97. Syracuse 110. Virginia Tech 128. Boston College 208. NC State Obviously things still to shake up quite a bit. I think Miami is going to do some damage this year. They put up quite a fight against Wake and Duke.