The Wolfpacker

September 2017

The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports

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64 ■ THE WOLFPACKER in college soccer at No. 33. Junior Taylor Porter (two goals) and sophomore Paige Griffiths (one goal and one assist) were also starters a year ago. The strength of the team, though, could be its talented trio of attacking goal scor- ers: fifth-year senior Jackie Stengel plus sophomores Tziarra King and Kia Rankin. In Stengel's two full seasons, she has led NC State in goals (2013 with nine and 2015 with five), yet she only played eight games a year ago before suffering a season-ending injury. She had scored five goals before getting hurt, and her return, Santoro noted, "is awesome." "It's great to have her back," the coach continued. "With her here we've had as good a frontline as I think you can have. If we can keep them healthy, we are going to be a hard team to play against." King was third-team All-ACC as a freshman after scoring a team-high eight goals, and TopDrawerSoccer.com listed her No. 28 on its list of the top 100 freshmen. Rankin scored five goals in 18 matches, but missed the NCAA Tournament run with an injury. She was named to the ACC's All- Freshman squad and checked in at No. 24 on the national freshmen list. "Teams can't just focus on one player," Santoro noted. "Jackie's first years, she was marked as a key player. Everyone can't do that now or Z or Kia will hurt them. "If you focus on one player on our team, you are going to be hurt by somebody else." Odds are opposing teams understand that, which means NC State will have a bigger tar- get on its back after the breakthrough season. "The easy stuff of rebuilding a program is going from bad to good," Santoro said. "The hardest part is going from good to the next level, and part of that is just that those teams take you serious and teams are prepared for you a little more. "That definitely is going to be a factor, but the fact is we don't control that and how teams prepare for us. All we can con- trol is our own performance." ■ Three Players To Watch Sophomore forward Tziarra King It's hard to imagine what she could do for an encore. Her 17 total points on eight goals and one assist were the 11th most by a freshman in school history. Four of her goals were game-winners, and she was named third-team All-ACC as a result. She also made the league's All-Freshman squad. Sophomore defender Krissi Schuster Her arrival as a freshman provided a significant boost to the backline, securing a defense that at one point went 463 minutes over a span of six games without allowing a score. She also contributed some on the attack, tallying five as - sists, including on the lone goal in a 1-0 win over Pepperdine in the NCAA Tournament to assure a berth into the Sweet 16. Fifth-year senior forward Jackie Stengel The last player before King to be named third- team All-ACC and appear on the league's All- Freshman team was Stengel, who when healthy has been a lethal goal scorer for the Pack. She has 19 career goals, and with a full season has an outside shot of cracking the all-time top 10 list for goal scorers. Had she not missed all but eight games last season, she would be almost assured of making it. Noting The Pack • Head coach Tim Santoro added seven fresh- men to the roster, and he used well-established pipelines for two of the additions. Defender Hope McQueen is the fourth San Diego native on the roster and hails from the same San Diego Surf club team that produced starting midfielder Tay - lor Porter. Freshman defender Lulu Guttenberger is a na- tive of Velburg, Germany, and the third German national to sign with Santoro. All three hail from the premier Bayern Munich organization. The other two Germans, sophomores Krissi Schuster (defender) and Ricci Walkling (midfielder), both started last season and were considered two of the premier freshmen in the country. • The preseason coaches' poll was released Aug. 4, and once again the ACC was well repre - sented. North Carolina (No. 6), Virginia (No. 11), Duke (No. 12), Clemson (No. 13), Florida State (No. 15) and Notre Dame (No. 18) were all ranked. The Pack will play Notre Dame, FSU and Duke in back-to-back-to-back games during a brutal four-game road stretch (Pittsburgh concludes the foursome of away games) after playing its first two ACC games at home. The opener will be against Virginia. ■ By The Numbers 2 Wolfpack freshmen — Tziarra King and Kia Rankin — were named to the ACC's All-Freshman team a year ago, the first time that has happened in school history. 4-5-1 NC State's ACC record last season. It had won four ACC games combined in the previous six years and had lost 20 straight league contests going into 2016. 33 Goals scored last season by NC State, more than the 2014 and 2015 campaigns combined. Newcomer To Watch Freshman Lulu Guttenberger Last year, midfielder Ricci Walkling and defender Krissi Schuster made immediate impacts on head coach Tim Santoro's team, and both were prod- ucts of the renowned Bayern Munich program in Germany. This year, defender Lulu Guttenberger becomes the latest Bayern Munich import to join the team. Santoro has praised Guttenberger's work in the preseason. The freshman has international experi - ence and played for the German U-17 national team. She participated in the UEFA European Wom- en's U-17 Championships in 2015. Junior goalkeeper Sydney Wooten had a 1.08 goals-against average a season ago. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS

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