#20/16 Irish Wrap ACC Swing At Wake Forest Sunday

DATE: Sept. 28, 2014

TIME: 1 p.m. ET

LOCATION: Winston-Salem, N.C. (Spry Stadium – cap. 3,000)

LAST MEETING: T, 1-1 (2OT) (10/3/13 at ND)

BROADCAST: Wakeforestsports.com

TWITTER: @NDsoccernews

TEXT ALERTS: Sign up at UND.com

– The Fighting Irish are 3-0-1 (.875) all-time against Wake Forest.

– Notre Dame and Wake Forest are meeting for the first time ever in Winston-Salem. Notre Dame is 1-0-1 at home and 2-0 on neutral fields against the Demon Deacons.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Fresh off its biggest win of the 2014 season, the University of Notre Dame women’s soccer team caps a two-game Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) road trip on Sunday at Wake Forest. The 1 p.m. (ET) match will be streamed with charge at Wakeforestsports.com.

The No. 20/16 Fighting Irish (6-3-1, 1-1 ACC) and Demon Deacons (3-5-1, 1-1 ACC) will meet for the fifth time in series history, but the first time in Winston-Salem. The teams battled to a 1-1 draw in the first showdown between the clubs in ACC play on Oct. 3, 2013 at Alumni Stadium.

Notre Dame notched a pair of goals within a 10-minute span in the second half on Thursday night, overpowering No. 2/3 Virginia Tech 2-0 at Thompson Field. It was the first Fighting Irish win in Blacksburg in program history.

Junior forward Anna Maria Gilbertson (Davis, California/Davis) scored her second goal of the season to open the Fighting Irish goal account in the 62nd minute, and sophomore forward Kaleigh Olmsted (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands) buried her first of the year in the 70th minute as an insurance goal for Notre Dame against Virginia Tech.

Sophomore goalkeeper Kaela Little (Tulsa, Oklahoma/Bishop Kelley) shined in her fifth solo shutout of the season, making five key stops during the upset of the Hokies. Little ranks second in the conference with her five shutouts, and is second in shutouts per match (0.56) among all keepers in the ACC.

Notre Dame travels to Spry Stadium for the first time in series history against Wake Forest, bringing a 3-0-1 series edge to the inaugural meeting between the teams in Winston-Salem. The Fighting Irish and Demon Deacons battled to a 1-1 draw on Oct. 3, 2013 at Alumni Stadium, the first official ACC showdown between the teams.

Wake Forest has qualified for the NCAA Championship in 18 straight seasons dating back to the 1996 campaign, reaching the semifinals of the NCAA College Cup in 2011. A 5-0 loss at No. 3/2 Virginia on Thursday night was the worst loss for the Demon Deacons since falling by a matching 5-0 score at then No. 8 Florida State during the 2008 season.

To purchase a season pass or single-match tickets for the 2014 Notre Dame women’s soccer season, call the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office at (574) 631-7356, visit the official Notre Dame athletics ticketing web site, UND.com/tickets or stop by the Murnane Family Athletics Ticket Office windows during normal business hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday). Tickets also can be purchased at Alumni Stadium on match days.

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Wake Forest enters Sunday’s match at 3-5-1 (1-1 ACC) this season, and are coming off a 5-0 loss at No. 3/2 Virginia on Thursday. The Demon Deacons own a 113-105 cumulative shot advantage against opponents through nine matches, but the opposition has outscored Wake Forest by an aggregate 17-10 count (9-3 in the first half).

Senior midfielder Riley Ridgik leads all Wake Forest players with four goals, nine points and 30 total shots through nine matches. Four other Demon Deacon players have tallied one goal, while freshman forward Sarah Medina has added a team-high two assists.

Freshman goalkeeper Lindsay Preston has earned eight of the team’s nine decisions, posting a 3-4-1 record and a 1.64 goals-against average. Preston has made a total of 36 stops in nearly 800 minutes of game time between the pipes, good for a .692 save percentage, and all three of her wins have been solo clean sheets.

Head coach Tony da Luz is in his 18th season at the helm of Wake Forest, and enters Sunday’s match with a 220-126-34 (.624) career mark with the Demon Deacons. He is one of 10 Wake Forest coaches across all sports at the university to win at least 200 career games with the Demon Deacons.

Da Luz has led Wake Forest to 17 consecutive NCAA Championship bids dating back to the 1997 season, including the program’s first NCAA College Cup appearance in 2011. Wake Forest also captured the 2010 ACC Championship, becoming just the fourth different champion in the history of the tournament at the time.

Sunday’s match will be the fifth time the Fighting Irish and Demon Deacons have met on the pitch, with Notre Dame holding a 3-0-1 series lead all-time in prior meetings with Wake Forest.

The Fighting Irish own a 9-2 aggregate goal advantage in past games against the Demon Deacons, with Wake Forest scoring each of its goals in series history during the past two meetings. Notre Dame defeated Wake Forest 2-1 during the second round of the NCAA Championship on Nov. 16, 2012 in Gainesville, Florida.

After enduring a nearly 90-minute weather delay at halftime, Notre Dame and Wake Forest scored goals in lightning succession, connecting just 56 seconds apart in the final quarter-hour of regulation, and the two teams wound up finishing in a 1-1 draw on Oct. 3, 2013 before 1,053 fans at Alumni Stadium.

Forward Karin Simonian gave Notre Dame the lead with 14:28 left in regulation, hammering home a cross from fellow forward Kaleigh Olmsted. However, Wake Forest equalized less than a minute later when Kendall Fischlein found herself unmarked at the back right post and drove a cross from Katie Stengel high into the net from 10 yards out.

Goalkeeper Kaela Little had another solid night in goal, ending up with three saves despite seeing her personal shutout streak stopped at 487:29. Her opposite number, Aubrey Bledsoe, had five saves in the Demon Deacons’ goal.

Notre Dame finished with a 23-12 edge in total shots, as well as a 6-4 margin in shots on goal and a sizeable 8-2 spread on corner kicks. The Fighting Irish also were called for 11 of the 19 fouls in the match, while Wake Forest collected both yellow cards.

Clutch second half goals from junior forward Anna Maria Gilbertson and sophomore forward Kaleigh Olmsted carried Notre Dame to a spirited 2-0 ACC victory over No. 2/3 Virginia Tech on Thursday night at Thompson Field.

No. 20/16 Notre Dame avenged a pair of one-goal losses (1-0 on Oct. 13; 2-1 in 2 OT on Nov. 3) at Thompson Field during its debut 2013 season in the ACC, controlling the second half against the previously undefeated Hokies. Virginia Tech finished the contest with a 15-9 edge in total shots, but only a 5-4 margin in shots on goal.

Senior forward Lauren Bohaboy led all Notre Dame players with three total shots during the match, with four different Fighting Irish shooters logging one shot on goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Kaela Little made five stops in goal to earn her fifth solo shutout of the season, and her 11th career clean sheet.

-Thursday’s win was Notre Dame’s first ever triumph at Virginia Tech. The Fighting Irish were unable to gain a result in their first two all-time trips to Blacksburg, which were coincidentally the two meetings between the teams in 2013.

-The Notre Dame win snapped Virginia Tech’s program-best 10-game winning streak to open a season. The Hokies women’s soccer team was also just the second Virginia Tech program to ever reach a ranking of number two in the country in a given sport, joining the football team in 1999 that ultimately competed for a national championship in the 2000 Sugar Bowl. No Virginia Tech varsity team has ever been the top-ranked team nationally in any sport.

-Notre Dame has now won 33 matches over top five opponents dating back to the 1993 season. The Fighting Irish have downed at least one top five foe in 17 of the 27 seasons in program history.

The Notre Dame women’s soccer program is two victories away from reaching 500 all-time wins, entering play on Sunday with 498 victories against only 99 losses and 29 draws (.819) in 27 seasons of varsity competition.

The Fighting Irish have averaged 18.4 wins per season since the women’s soccer program was elevated to varsity status in 1988, reaching the NCAA Championship in 21 consecutive seasons. Notre Dame has also appeared in the NCAA Women’s College Cup 12 times, including eight berths in the NCAA Championship match, and has won three national championships (1995, 2004, 2010) to tie for the second-most NCAA titles in Division I history.

The women’s soccer and softball programs at Notre Dame, both in their 27th official seasons of varsity status, are the only two Fighting Irish athletics teams never to log a losing season in their respective histories.

With its win at Virginia Tech on Thursday, Notre Dame improved to 173-17-11 (.888) all-time in conference play dating back to the 1991 season. The Fighting Irish have never lost more than five league matches in a single season, and have posted unbeaten conference marks on 15 occasions.

The Fighting Irish are a combined 158-47-15 (.752) all-time in road matches entering Sunday’s contest at Wake Forest.

Notre Dame returns to Alumni Stadium to host Virginia on Oct. 5 at 1 p.m. (ET). Virginia entered this weekend as the last perfect team (10-0-0) in Division I.