After a chaotic week in Louisville, Wake Forest field hockey’s ACC championship hopes ended with a hard-fought 3-1 quarterfinal loss to Syracuse.
Some said the tournament was “cursed.”
Several teams contracted food poisoning on their first day in the host city, including California, whose players were sent to the emergency room the night before their game.
Instead of postponing the game, the ACC tournament directors decided to line the field with trash cans in case the players had to get sick. This sparked backlash from fans who thought that the situation was handled poorly.
“The kids deserve better,” said @thefhockeyanalyst, an Instagram account that covers all divisions of college field hockey, in a post.
In addition, an hour before Wake’s match, tragedy struck in Louisville when a cargo plane fully loaded with fuel crashed and exploded just 2.7 miles from Trager Stadium. As a huge cloud of smoke filled the sky, a shelter-in-place was ordered, forcing the game to be postponed to the following day.
Wake Forest (15-4, 7-1 ACC) entered the postseason as the three seed after capturing a share of the ACC regular-season title. An early goal by the Orange sparked momentum in the match, which they carried through to the end.
Syracuse scored the opening tally with eight minutes remaining in the first quarter. Despite Wake Forest’s attacking pressure, the Orange defense held strong, and the Deacs went into halftime trailing 1-0 while outshooting Syracuse 6-3.
“I thought we played way too lethargically on that end in the first half,” Head Coach Jen Averill said.
The Orange extended their lead just two minutes into the second half to make it 2-0, but the Deacs were not going to go quietly.
Mia Shoenbeck got Wake on the board just minutes later with a penalty stroke to the top left corner, making it 2-1. After continued pressure and attacking penalty corner attempts from Wake, the Syracuse defensive unit held strong.
A late penalty corner looked like it was Wake’s chance to equalize when Schoenbeck fired a shot into the back of the cage with 2:07 remaining. But after a video review, the goal was called back. The Orange sealed the 3-1 result with an empty-net goal in the final second.
Junior midfielder Flo Tuthill spoke for the team about their mindset moving forward.
“After the ACC we were obviously very disappointed,” Tuthill said. “Our coaches made us recognize that we still have an even bigger opportunity to perform well. We understand that we have a lot of work to do and accept this challenge, recognizing that hard work and resilience are going to be key characteristics prior to the tournament.”
Averill echoed that sentiment and is approaching the upcoming week as an opportunity to grow, learn, and prepare for future successes.
“I was super proud of our ability to create opportunities on the offensive end, and we could have finished this game,” Averill said. “I know the players are disappointed, but I look forward to the selection show and making some corrections.”
The Deacs now await their fate and will look to Selection Sunday on Nov. 9 at 10 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.
