After finishing the regular season last week, the Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team is now moving on to the ACC Tournament and defeated second-seed Duke in the first round. FSU finished the season as the ninth-ranked team while Duke finished the season as the fifth ranked team, but the Seminoles outlasted Duke for a 1-0 win on Sunday.
The 'Noles finished the regular season with a 12-4-2 record, but they finished the season with a loss to a Miami(Fl) team who struggled all season long and finished the season at 6-9-3.
The Seminoles finished the season with a 5-4-1 record in the ACC, but most of their wins came against the teams who were in the bottom of the conference. In games against teams with winning conference records, the 'Noles went 1-3.
Against Duke, sophomore Kristen McFarland played the hero and headed home the game's only goal in the 23rd minute to give FSU a 1-0 result in the tournament's quarterfinal.
The biggest win of the season so far came against Virginia last Sunday. The Cavaliers finished third in the ACC at 7-3 and a 14-3 overall record. They were the sixth-ranked team when FSU took them down with a final score of 2-0. This was the first time in the program's 24-year history that they beat Virginia on the road. Before this season, they were previously 0-9-1 at Klöckner Stadium against the Cavaliers.
On November 2, Florida State and Virginia will face off once again in the ACC Tournament semifinal in Cary, North Carolina.
Florida State was led by junior-forward Deyna Castellanos this season with seven goals, five assists and 19 points. She led the team in goals and points and was second in assists — only Malia Berkely had more with six assists.
Yujie Zhao was second on the team in goals, points, and shots on goal. She scored six goals and had 15 points on 15 shots on goal. She also added three assists for the season.
Redshirt freshman Brooke Bollinger was the team's main goalie for the season, playing 17 games and all but 98:48 of time on the season. Bollinger allowed only eight goals in over 1,500 minutes in net with 31 saves. She finished the regular season with a save percentage of .795. Her record was 11-4-2 on the season as the starting goalie.
The 'Noles now roll into the tournament semis with a ton of momentum and will look to knock off Virginia for the second time in two weeks.