NC State parts ways with women’s soccer coach Tim Santoro
After 12 seasons at NC State, women’s soccer coach Tim Santoro was relieved of his duties, Wolfpack athletic director Boo Corrigan announced Friday morning.
Santoro went 90-108-33 in his tenure at NC State, including a 28-69-16 mark against ACC competition. He took the Pack to the postseason six times, but NC State has failed to make it in each of the past two seasons. It last advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2021.
“We thank Tim for all of his contributions to NC State and wish him well in the future,” Corrigan said in a statement.
NC State went 4-10-4 this fall after the team turned in a 3-9-6 record during the 2023 campaign. It was his first back-to-back losing campaigns since the 2013-2015 seasons, his first three at the helm of the Wolfpack.
Before the season began, Santoro believed this season’s team had the ability to break through and earn an NCAA Tournament bid, a feat he accomplished six times, including three trips to the Sweet Sixteen.
“I think the challenge for all of us — the players and the staff — is that we want to get back to where we were,” Santoro told TheWolfpacker.com in August. “It took me a couple years to rebuild this program and we got to a really good point. Last year wasn’t normal for us. We belong in the top 25, we belong in the postseason. We think we have the team that can do that.”
The Pack earned just one win in conference play this fall, going 1-6-3 against ACC opponents. NC State was outscored 5-16 against league foes, including a 0-3 loss to Wake Forest in the regular season finale as the Wolfpack missed the ACC tournament for the second straight season.
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Santoro blamed last season’s “down year” on a lack of using the transfer portal to his advantage ahead of the 2023 campaign.
“I was probably a little slow,” Santoro said of utilizing the transfer portal in August. “I think that contributed to our down year by being a little slow to realize you have to dip into the portal. We’re probably a year behind where we should have been in recruiting, so here we are.”
The Wolfpack used the portal to its advantage this past offseason, adding five veteran transfers that were expected to help bolster NC State’s roster going into a pivotal season. NC State was unable to find consistent success this fall, ultimately ending Santoro’s tenure after more than a decade in Raleigh.
NC State will begin a national search for the program’s next coach, the athletic department announced. This will mark Corrigan’s fourth coaching hire at NC State, his third in the last 12 months, after he hired volleyball’s Luka Slabe (2020), softball’s Lindsay Leftwich (June 2023) and men’s soccer’s Marc Hubbard (Dec. 2023).
