Wake Forest Run Away From Louisville 5-1 to Seal the ACC’s No. 2 Seed
It was 1-1 at half-time. Then Wake Forest scored four unanswered goals, three of them in the third quarter, and Louisville’s regular season ended in a 5-1 defeat that was far more one-sided than the first half suggested.
Mia Schoenbeck scored twice for the No. 7 Demon Deacons. Sarah Mudd, Faye Janse and Mia Montag added one each, and goalkeeper Ruby Butterfield picked up her 13th win of the season. Annabel Sep scored Louisville’s goal, and she still leads the Cardinals with six goals this season, but Louisville were outshot 11-4 on goal and lost the corner count 6-2.
What it means
Wake Forest finish the regular season 13-5 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, sharing the regular-season title with North Carolina and Duke and taking the No. 2 seed on goal difference. They’ll face No. 7 seed Virginia in Tuesday’s ACC quarter-finals at 3:30pm ET in Chapel Hill.
Louisville finish 10-8 overall and 4-4 in the ACC, good for the No. 5 seed, and they meet No. 4 seed Syracuse on Tuesday at 12:30pm ET. Syracuse beat Louisville 4-2 when they met on 9 October, so the Cardinals have a score to settle. Four ACC wins is still Louisville’s best league return since 2021, which tells you how far this programme has come even after a heavy final-day defeat.
For our money, Wake Forest are the dark horses in Chapel Hill. They’ve already beaten Louisville, they’ve got the second seed, and a team that can score four in a half against anyone is never out of a tournament game.
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