Wake Forest Athletics
2011 Women's Soccer Season in Review
12/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Dec. 20, 2011
Complete Season in Review Notes Packet 
The 2011 season was a special one for the Wake Forest women's soccer team. The Demon Deacons emerged as a national powerhouse and reached the College Cup for the first time, finishing the year with a program-best 18-4-4 record. Wake Forest finished tied for fourth in the ACC and reached the ACC Championship Game for the second year in a row.
The future looks bright with all 11 starters from this year's squad are expected to return in 2012.
Wake Forest Reaches First-Ever College Cup
Wake Forest is a program on the rise and the its development into a national power came to a head this season as the Demon Deacons earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and then played up to their seeding to advance to the NCAA College Cup for the first time.
Playing on its home field at Spry Stadium, Wake Forest posted consecutive 2-0 victories over Oakland (first round) and Boston University (second round) to open NCAA Tournament play. The Deacons then exploded for a 4-2 victory over Penn State in the third round before handling UCF 3-0 in the quarterfinals to earn a berth in the College Cup in Kennesaw, Ga.
In the semifinals, the Wake Forest came up against Duke for the third time this season. The Demon Deacons controlled play for much of the first half and were unlucky to give up a goal off of a corner kick just before the halftime break. The Blue Devils struck against shortly after halftime to double their advantage. Rachel Nuzzolese pulled a goal back for Wake Forest on a sublime free kick, but the Deacons conceded a penalty kick less than a minute later that the Blue Devils converted, giving them the momentum to hold onto a 4-1 victory.
Wake Forest's Katie Stengel scored 13 points in the 2011 NCAA Tournament to lead all players, and her five goals tied Duke's Kaitlyn Kerr for the most in tournament play. Kristen Meier was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team after her three-point performance in the Deacons' quarterfinal win over UCF.
Stengel and Bledsoe Earn All-America Honors
Sophomores Katie Stengel and Aubrey Bledsoe were named to the 2011 NSCAA All-America Teams. Stengel, a forward, made the first team, and Bledsoe, a goalkeeper, made the second team.
Stengel is Wake Forest's first-ever First Team All-America and earned All-America honors from the NSCAA for the second year in a row after being named to the organization's second team as a freshman in 2010. Bledsoe's All-America recognition was the first of her career.
In addition to being named All-Americas, Bledsoe and Stengel were both selected to the NSCAA All-Southeast Region First Team. They were joined on the All-Region team by junior defender Caralee Keppler, who took home second team honors.
Three Demon Deacons Honored by Soccer America
Katie Stengel and Aubrey Bledsoe were selected to Soccer America's national MVP Teams, while Kim Marshall was named to the national All-Freshman team.
Stengel is a member of the MVP First Team, and Bledsoe is on the MVP Second Team. Marshall's selection to the freshman team gave the Demon Deacons a representative for the second year in a row after Stengel was selected to the squad in 2010.
Wake Forest had three players among the Soccer America national award winners for the first time in the history of the program.
Stengel Named ACC Offensive Player of the Year
Katie Stengel was selected as the ACC's 2011 Offensive Player of the Year in a vote of the conference's head coaches, making her the first-ever Demon Deacon to earn conference player of the year honors.
Stengel led all ACC players with 19 goals and 46 points this season, marking the second straight season that she finished as the conference's scoring leader.
Stengel was also an All-ACC First Team selection for the second year in a row. She was joined on the All-ACC First Team by goalkeeper Aubrey Bledose, giving Wake Forest multiple first team selections for only the fourth time.
Defender Caralee Keppler was selected to the All-ACC Second Team, while defender Kim Marshall and midfielder Riley Ridgik made the ACC All-Freshman Team.
Stengel Breaks Her Own School Scoring Records
For the second year in a row, Katie Stengel rewrote the Wake Forest record books, setting new school single-season records with 19 goals and 46 points scored this season.
Stengel's first two seasons in a Wake Forest uniform have been the two highest-scoring campaigns in school history.
Stengel was not the only Deacon scoring at an eye-popping rate. Rachel Nuzzolese finished the year with 12 goals and 31 points, totals that rank fourth and sixth respectively in the Wake Forest record books.
The First Since Mia Hamm...
Katie Stengel's 0.79 goal per game this season (19 goals total) led the ACC, making her the first player since North Carolina's Mia Hamm in 1992 & 1993 to lead the conference in goal-scoring in back-to-back seasons, and the first-ever player to accomplish the feat in her freshman and sophomore years.
As a freshman in 2010, Stengel led all ACC players with 16 goals and a 0.67 goals-per-game rate, the statistic that the conference has used to name its scoring leader since 2002.
Hamm was the last player to lead the league in scoring in back-to-back seasons, accomplishing the feat when she netted 32 goals in 1992 and 26 goals in 1993. NC State's Charmaine Hooper was the first, and only other, player to lead the ACC in consecutive seasons, scoring 15 goals in 1988 and 26 goals in 1989.
Bledsoe Sets Wake Forest Shutout Record
Wake Forest sophomore goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe kept 14 shutouts this season, shattering the previous Wake Forest single-season record of nine, that had been set by Erin Regan in 1999.
In addition to being a Wake Forest record, the Cincinnati, Ohio native's 14 shutouts were the tied for the third-most in all of Division I this season and the 12th-most in a season in NCAA history.
Bledsoe had a scintillating season in net for the Demon Deacons, putting forth a 0.74 goals against average that ranked as the second-lowest in school history. She was named a second team All-America by the NSCAA and was the lone goalkeeper on the All-ACC First Team - a de facto nod as the conference's goalkeeper of the year.
Deacons Lend a Helping Hand
Wake Forest scored 53 goals in 2011 with Demon Deacons earning 55 assists on them - the highest single-season assist total in school history.
Leading the way for the Deacons were Katie Stengel and Kristen Meier who chipped in eight assists each to lead the team, followed close behind by Rachel Nuzzolese who tallied seven assists. All three players' assist totals were new career highs.
Stengel and Meier's eight assists were tied for the fifth-most in a season in Wake Forest history, while Nuzzolese's seven assists were tied with a number of players for the eighth-highest total.
Wake Forest Sets New Rankings Records
Wake Forest reached new heights in the NSCAA Coaches Poll this season, climbing to a peak ranking of No. 3 - the highest in school history - before finishing ranked No. 4, marking the Demon Deacons' highest-ever finish.
After first breaking into the top 10 in mid September following their win over then-No. 3 Florida State, the Demon Deacons would be ranked no lower than ninth through the remainder of the season.
Deacs Peak at No. 1 in the RPI
Powered by a strong run through an impressive non-conference schedule and a number of stellar results in conference play, Wake Forest was ranked No. 1 nationally in the NCAA RPI ratings for the week of October 17, marking the first time the Deacons had ever occupied the top spot in the rankings.
The RPI formula takes into an account a team's winning percentage and strength of schedule, and is used by the NCAA Women's Soccer Committee for selections and seeding for the NCAA Tournament. The Deacons' lofty ranking likely played a major role in them earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Wake Forest finished the year at No. 3 in the RPI, which was its highest-ever finish.
Deacons Dominate the Non-Conference Slate
Wake Forest's 11-1 record against non-ACC opponents was the best in the history of the program, and it becomes even more impressive when you look at the caliber of its opponents.
The Demon Deacons opened the year with a 4-1 road drubbing of SEC champion Auburn, and two day later traveled to Orlando to defeat UCF, which it would meet again in the NCAA quarterfinals. Wake Forest later earned a road win over SEC regular season champion South Carolina, and in the NCAA Tournament, topped Summit League champion Oakland, America East champ Boston University and Big Ten regular season champion Penn State.
Deacs String Together Record Unbeaten Streak
After suffering its first loss of the season to Connecticut on Sept. 2, Wake Forest bounced back strong, putting together an 11-match unbeaten streak that went into the books as the longest in school history.
During the streak, which lasted almost a month and a half from Sept. 4 through Oct. 20, the Demon Deacons posted an 8-0-3 record that included ACC wins over No. 3 Florida State, No. 13 Virginia, NC State and Miami.
Duke finally snapped the unbeaten run on Oct. 20 with a 2-0 victory at Spry Stadium.
Three Deacs Earn Academic All-District Honors
Jackie Logue, Katie Stengel and Aubrey Bledsoe have been voted to the Capital One Academic All-District Teams. Logue and Stengel were selected to the first team, making them eligible for the Academic All-America teams, while Bledsoe was picked to the second team.
Logue earned Academic All-District honors for the second consecutive season. She is majoring in business and enterprise management. Stengel and Bledsoe were both selected to the team in their first year of eligibility. To be eligible for the team, players must have at least sophomore standing at their institution and a grade point average of at least 3.30.
Stengel Scores Eighth Hat Trick in School History
Sophomore Katie Stengel has accomplished a number of impressive feats in her career, but she had never before scored a hat trick until the Deacs took on Campbell on Sept. 4.
Stengel scored three second-half goals against the Camels, the first two coming on good setups by Kristen Meier and the third the result of a pinpoint cross from Kelsey Zalimeni.
The Melbourne, Fla. native's hat trick was the eighth in Wake Forest women's soccer history and the first since Sarah Winslow scored three times against UNC Wilmington in 2008.
Wake's eight hat tricks have been scored by five different players. No Wake Forest player has ever scored more than three goals in a single game.
Bledsoe Leads the Nation in Minutes Played
Goalkeeper Aubrey Bledsoe played in all 2,428 minutes for the Demon Deacons to finish as the national leader for minutes played by a goalkeeper. In her first two years at Wake Forest, Bledsoe has already played 4,609 minutes in goal, the third-highest career total for a Demon Deacon.
