NC State women’s soccer motivated to return to NCAA Tournament this fall

NC State women’s soccer made six straight trips in the fall edition of the NCAA Tournament under coach Tim Santoro until last season. That campaign, as Santoro put it, was a “down year” with a 3-9-6 record to miss the opportunity to play for a national championship. 

Part of it was a tough non-conference slate, which included losses at Colorado and Harvard, but the Wolfpack was also missing veteran experience and depth. Santoro entered the offseason looking to solve that issue, and he went into the transfer portal to fill out his roster. 

“I was probably a little slow,” Santoro said of utilizing the transfer portal. “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 Pack emerged from the transfer portal with five new players ahead of this season — NC State took just one transfer going into the 2023 campaign. And of those transfers, four are graduate students looking to cap their collegiate careers with a high note in Raleigh. 

Midfielder Abi Hugh (Marshall), defender Alivia Kelly (New Hampshire), defender Paige Tolentino (UNC) and defender Kennedy Dunnings (Radford) all have the veteran experience Santoro was looking for in the portal. 

Hugh was Conference USA’s Freshman of the Year in 2020-21 and logged 10 goals with nine assists during her time with the Thundering Herd. Kelly, meanwhile, was the America East Defender of the Year last fall as a 60-game starter in four seasons with the Wildcats. Tolentino returned to the pitch after an injury cut her 2023 season short, but she logged 50 appearances with the Tar Heels, while Dunnings had 67 outings (58 starts) with the Highlanders. 

So, it’s safe to say that Santoro was able to accomplish what he set out to do in the transfer portal.

Now, as the Pack prepares to open its season against Appalachian State on Thursday night at Dail Soccer Stadium, NC State has a chip on its shoulder. It is looking to right the ship to start a new streak of NCAA Tournament appearances.

“We’ve talked about what was built before them and what we had to go through to get to this point where we were a top 25 team and NCAA Tournament team every year,” Santoro said. “To be in the group that missed the tournament in seven years, I’ve reminded them. They want to fix it, so I think they’re pretty motivated.”

For Santoro, it was important to jumpstart the roster with an infusion of veteran talent. The Pack returned experience of its own internally, including graduate midfielder Jaiden Thomas, senior midfielder Annika Wohner and sophomore forward Jade Bordeleau. 

After he rebuilt the program when he arrived ahead of the 2013 season, Santoro wanted to avoid doing that again with multiple down years in a row. And by improving his roster with domestic and international talent (five different countries are represented on the roster), Santoro is confident he did just that. 

How does he know? The team’s depth, which was a key goal of the offseason, is much improved.

“I don’t think we have that superstar, but we have depth,” Santoro said. “I’m going to be able to change lineups, not because there’s a problem, but because I can. … I think we have options. When you play two games a week with some travel, our depth will be important for us.”

NC State has enough depth to mix up four to five starters on a given night. That is a luxury that Santoro does not appear to take for granted. 

“This week we’re starting to put together what is the best 11?” Santoro said. “I don’t even know if the 11 we start on Thursday night will ultimately be our  best 11, but it’s nice to be able to have those choices.”

Although NC State was disappointed with how last fall went, it is not uncharted territory for Santoro. His last team to go under .500 was in 2015, a 4-15 mark, and it responded with six straight NCAA Tournament appearances with three trips to the Sweet Sixteen. 

The Pack’s 12th-year head coach is confident his team can get back to its usual ways this fall. 

“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 said. “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.”