The women's soccer team will begin defending its title as the 2004 ACC Tournament Champion tomorrow at noon in Cary, N.C. Seeded second, the Cavaliers first face the seventh-seeded Wake Forest team that they defeated 1-0 earlier this season.
Last Saturday's win at home, in front of the largest crowd Klöckner Stadium has seen this season, sends the team to the tournament on a high note. However, Wednesday's game will not be easy. Wake Forest has a strong team, and the Cavaliers' margin of victory over the Demon Deacons earlier this fall was narrow.
"We're going to take it one game at a time, and right now we are looking at the quarterfinals on Wednesday," senior midfielder Kelly Hammond said. "We are going to come out and compete hard and battle hard."
Even with its championship last year, the women's team is wary of being overconfident. The Cavaliers finished the regular season 13-4-1 overall and went 8-2 in the ACC, but the majority of those wins were only by a margin of one goal.
"It's in the back of our heads that we cannot take any team for granted," senior midfielder Noelle Keselica said. "This year's a new year. Any team we face, we have to be up for the challenge."
While veteran Keselica vividly remembers last year's tournament, the Cavaliers are playing several freshmen, for whom this will be their first ACC Tournament experience. They have proven themselves as valuable assets throughout the season, but tomorrow's game will be their first encounter with the high-pressure environment of a tournament of this magnitude.
Midfielder Sarah Huffman, another veteran, said she realizes this year's team is young but feels confident all the same.
"It's a little bit different from last year because last year we had a lot of experience," Huffman said. "This year we don't necessarily have the experience you get in the college season, but we have players who have gotten their experience elsewhere, and so hopefully we can just put all of that together."
The Cavaliers' defense is young, but coach Steve Swanson said he was quite impressed by them last Saturday. He also said he has high hopes for the upcoming tournament because his players are the healthiest they have been all season.
"We are really healthy going in there, and that is a good sign for us," Swanson said. "Wednesday we should be full strength, which will be nice to have. It's the first time since the beginning of the season that we've been really healthy, though we do not have Kristin [Weiss] still."
Healthy players are vital because the ACC tournament schedule is grueling.
"If you want to win an ACC Championship, you have three games in five days, and you're going to need to rely on your depth," Swanson said. "The kids coming off the bench did a really good job [Saturday]. That's good to have going into the ACC's and the postseason, knowing that your depth is there."
A win tomorrow would send the Cavaliers to Saturday's semifinals, where they would face either the Florida State Seminoles or the Clemson Tigers. They were victorious over both teams during the regular season, but the scores were only 1-0, and the win over Clemson came in double overtime. The players said they are prepared for the challenge and would love to meet UNC in the finals and defeat the Tar Heels for the first time in history. Last year, Virginia and North Carolina tied in the tournament finals, and the Cavaliers won the title with penalty kicks.
"We just need to make sure that we believe in ourselves," Huffman said. "Believe we can achieve something that's never been done"
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