Wolfpack Opens ACC Play Against Cal, Stanford

RALEIGH, N.C. – NC State women's soccer opens Atlantic Coast Conference play this week against California and No. 1 Stanford at Dail Soccer Stadium.

The Wolfpack's match against Cal is set for Thursday night at 7 p.m., while the Pack concludes its four-game homestand Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. against top-ranked Stanford. Both matches will stream live on ACC Network Extra.

SERIES HISTORY VS. CAL
NC State and Cal will square off for the fourth time on Thursday night. A few notes tracking the Pack's matchup against the Golden Bears are listed below:

• NC State holds a 2-1-0 record against California in the all-time series.
• NC State and Cal met three times between the 1988 and 1989 seasons. The last meeting between the two programs was on Sept. 23, 1989.
• The Wolfpack shut out Cal 3-0 in the first meeting between the two programs on Sept. 15, 1988. NC State then shut out the Golden Bears once again in the NCAA semifinals on Nov. 19, 1988, in Chapel Hill. The Wolfpack finished as the NCAA runner-up during that historic season.
• Cal blanked NC State 2-0 in the most recent matchup on Sept. 23, 1989, in Berkeley, California.

SERIES HISTORY VS. STANFORD
NC State and Stanford will face off for the second time on Sunday afternoon. A few notes tracking the Pack's matchup against the Cardinal are listed below:

• Stanford and NC State have only one prior meeting leading up to Sunday's conference matchup in Raleigh. Stanford notched a 2-0 road victory over NC State with a shutout win on Oct. 21, 1990.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS
Cal (7-1-1) will play its first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference match on Thursday night in Raleigh. The Golden Bears have notched a 6-0-1 record following a 2-1 road defeat at No. 22 Santa Clara on Aug. 18. During that stretch, the Bears have outscored their opponents 21-7, scoring multiple goals five times in their past seven games. Senior Karlie Lema leads the Bears with 11 goals, four assists and 26 points. Lema has scored 11 of Cal's 24 goals on the season. Defensively, California goalkeeper Teagan Wy was named to the 2024 Preseason Women's Soccer All-ACC Team. Wy has represented Team USA at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup over the past few weeks and will face North Korea in a semifinal matchup on Wednesday evening.

SCOUTING THE CARDINAL
Stanford (8-0-0) enters its first week of ACC competition with an undefeated record, outscoring opponents 14-2 so far this season. The Cardinal has shut out six of its eight opponents and has limited opponents to fewer than seven shots per game. Redshirt junior forward Andrea Kitahata leads Stanford with five goals and 13 points. She is also tied with freshman midfielder Charlotte Kohler for the team lead in assists with three. Stanford, the 2023 NCAA runner-up, was predicted second in the ACC only behind reigning national champion Florida State. The Cardinal also had two representatives on the 2024 Preseason Women's Soccer All-ACC Team, midfielder Jasmine Aikey and defender Elise Evans.

TIP OF THE HAT
Sophomore forward Jade Bordeleau netted her first-career hat trick in Sunday's 4-0 win over George Washington. Bordeleau needed less than 10 minutes of game action to score all three of her goals in the standout performance, logging goals in the 39th, 46th and 48th minutes to give NC State a commanding 3-0 lead. The sophomore's hat trick marked NC State's first hat trick since Tziarra King recorded one five years ago to the day on Sept. 15, 2019, against Furman. The Wolfpack won that match 3-1 over the visiting Paladins.

GOALS GALORE
After a slow start in its first three matches, the NC State offense erupted for eight goals between back-to-back victories over VCU and Charlotte. The Wolfpack scored just once in an 0-2-1 start to the season before logging three first-half goals in each of its two victories this season. The last time NC State scored three or more goals in back-to-back matches was on Oct. 24 and Oct. 27, 2019, when the Wolfpack notched a 3-2 win over Syracuse and a 3-0 win over Notre Dame. NC State's offense exploded once again on Sunday in a 4-0 win over George Washington. The Wolfpack has outscored its opponents 12-1 in its three victories this season.

LISTED AMONGST THE NATION'S BEST
NC State was ranked No. 27 on SoccerWire's 2024 Best College Soccer Teams: Top 50 Current NCAA Women's Programs. Rankings are based on a combination of final United Soccer Coaches Polls and RPI rankings over the past five seasons. The Wolfpack has secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament in six of the past seven fall campaigns, highlighted by NCAA Sweet 16 appearances in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

NC State also ranks inside the top eight of all ACC programs on the list. The Wolfpack is one of 11 ACC programs inside the Top 50.

THE STRONG GROW STRONGER
The ACC finished with four teams in the top 10 of the final NCAA RPI poll, highlighted by undefeated national champion Florida State at No. 1. The league also welcomes national runner-up Stanford, SMU and California to the league beginning with the 2024 season. Stanford (No. 3), SMU (No. 40) and California (No. 68) all finished inside the top 75 of the final NCAA RPI poll, adding to a group of seven ACC teams who finished inside the top 80 of this past season's final poll out of 347 Division I programs.

In the first RPI poll released on Monday, the ACC has 11 teams inside the top 50, including eight in the top 20. Stanford ranks No. 7 in the poll, while Cal checks in at No. 100.

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Players Mentioned

Jade Bordeleau

North Carolina State University Athletics