Thursday, October 24
Pittsburgh, PA
7:00 p.m.
Wake Forest University
11-2-2, 6-1-1
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Pitt
9-5-3, 3-4-2
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Wake Forest
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Photo by: Wake Forest Athletics
No. 2 Wake Forest Defeats Pitt 2-0 in Final Road Match of the Season
10/24/2024 10:20:00 PM | Women's Soccer
The Demon Deacons extended their unbeaten run to seven matches.
PITTSBURGH – In the final road test of the regular season, the No. 2-ranked Wake Forest women's soccer team secured three points with a 2-0 victory at Pitt Thursday night at Ambrose Urbanic Field.
The Demon Deacons (11-2-2, 6-1-1 ACC) opened the scoring in the 24th minute, as junior forward Caiya Hanks fired the Deacs ahead with her team-best eighth goal of the season following an excellent ball from senior midfielder Emily Colton at the halfway line.
In the second half, senior striker Emily Murphy doubled the advantage with a flying finish in the box after a beautiful ball by Emily Morris found Caiya Hanks on the left wing, who then played a great cross to the Windsor, England native in front of goal.
This marked Hanks' fifth game of the season with multiple goal contributions and second-consecutive outing doing so. She now has a team-best eight goals, seven assists and 23 total points, including a goal in each of the last four matches, the longest stretch of her career. Of note, Hanks is now five points away from cracking the top 10 in program history in a single season.
With the assist on the first goal, Emily Colton has now recorded at least one goal contribution in eight of her last 10 appearances for the Demon Deacons and is second on the team with 16 total points. The No. 2 player in the nation according to TopDrawerSoccer also ranks third on the team with four assists. Additionally, she went the full 90 minutes for the fourth time this season.
Murphy has been incredible over her last four games, scoring three times, notching three assists and being involved in multiple other scoring opportunities for the Demon Deacons. Additionally, she has 19 goals and 18 assists for her collegiate career, putting her at 56 total points.
Morris notched the secondary assist on Murphy's goal, her second of the season and seventh of her career.
The Panthers (9-5-3, 3-4-2 ACC) became the first team this season to out-shoot the Deacs (14-to-11), but only had one shot on-goal throughout the 90 minutes. Wake Forest controlled 56 percent of the possession Thursday night.
In addition to Colton, the backline of seniors Laurel Ansbrow, Zara Chavoshi, Kristin Johnson and redshirt freshman Sierra Sythe also went the distance. This marked the third-consecutive game those four went the full 90 together and fifth time this season.
In goal, Valentina Amaral improved to 7-1-1 in games she's started throughout her young career and has only allowed five goals over 945 minutes of action for a ridiculous .47 career goals-against average. It was her fourth complete-game clean sheet and eighth overall.
The Demon Deacons improved to 6-2 all-time against the Panthers.
With the result, the Deacs now have 19 points in ACC play, putting them in third with two matches left to play.
How It Happened
The Demon Deacons will now return home for a massive Big Four clash against the No. 1-ranked Duke Blue Devils at Spry Stadium on Sunday night.
The match is slated for 6 p.m. and will be shown live on ACC Network Extra.
Follow The Deacs
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | #GoDeacs
The Demon Deacons (11-2-2, 6-1-1 ACC) opened the scoring in the 24th minute, as junior forward Caiya Hanks fired the Deacs ahead with her team-best eighth goal of the season following an excellent ball from senior midfielder Emily Colton at the halfway line.
In the second half, senior striker Emily Murphy doubled the advantage with a flying finish in the box after a beautiful ball by Emily Morris found Caiya Hanks on the left wing, who then played a great cross to the Windsor, England native in front of goal.
This marked Hanks' fifth game of the season with multiple goal contributions and second-consecutive outing doing so. She now has a team-best eight goals, seven assists and 23 total points, including a goal in each of the last four matches, the longest stretch of her career. Of note, Hanks is now five points away from cracking the top 10 in program history in a single season.
With the assist on the first goal, Emily Colton has now recorded at least one goal contribution in eight of her last 10 appearances for the Demon Deacons and is second on the team with 16 total points. The No. 2 player in the nation according to TopDrawerSoccer also ranks third on the team with four assists. Additionally, she went the full 90 minutes for the fourth time this season.
Murphy has been incredible over her last four games, scoring three times, notching three assists and being involved in multiple other scoring opportunities for the Demon Deacons. Additionally, she has 19 goals and 18 assists for her collegiate career, putting her at 56 total points.
Morris notched the secondary assist on Murphy's goal, her second of the season and seventh of her career.
The Panthers (9-5-3, 3-4-2 ACC) became the first team this season to out-shoot the Deacs (14-to-11), but only had one shot on-goal throughout the 90 minutes. Wake Forest controlled 56 percent of the possession Thursday night.
In addition to Colton, the backline of seniors Laurel Ansbrow, Zara Chavoshi, Kristin Johnson and redshirt freshman Sierra Sythe also went the distance. This marked the third-consecutive game those four went the full 90 together and fifth time this season.
In goal, Valentina Amaral improved to 7-1-1 in games she's started throughout her young career and has only allowed five goals over 945 minutes of action for a ridiculous .47 career goals-against average. It was her fourth complete-game clean sheet and eighth overall.
The Demon Deacons improved to 6-2 all-time against the Panthers.
With the result, the Deacs now have 19 points in ACC play, putting them in third with two matches left to play.
How It Happened
- Pitt had the first chance of the match in the third minute, but an incredible last-ditch tackle from Dempsey Brown kept the match scoreless.
- Another great tackle, this time by Laurel Ansbrow, snuffed out another dangerous chance for Pitt five minutes later.
- The Deacs' first big chance of the contest came in the 14th minute, when Emily Murphy played a clever ball through to Emily Colton in front of goal, but Pitt keeper just got there first.
- Colton then registered the first Wake Forest shot of the night in the 21st minute, as her long-ranged effort just missed the top-right corner.
- Wake Forest took the lead in the 24th minute on Caiya Hanks' team-best eighth goal of the season.
- The goal came following a phenomenal ball from Emily Colton at the halfway line into the path of Hanks, who made no mistake and finished the one-on-one opportunity with the keeper.
- Hanks (22) and Colton (16) are the team leaders in points this season.
- Pitt's only shot on-goal of the night came a minute later, where Amaral collected her 20th save of the season.
- Wake Forest took the 1-0 lead into the break.
- The Demon Deacons controlled 54 percent of the ball in the first half.
- Emily Murphy got on the scoresheet in the 53rd minute, after a perfect ball from Emily Morris found Hanks on the left wing, who then crossed it to Murphy for an excellent finish.
- The goalscorers Hanks and Murphy both came close to a third for the Deacs in the 58th and 62nd minutes, respectively.
- The Demon Deacons continued to control the contest and limited opportunities for the Panthers.
- In the 81st minute, Pitt won a penalty, but sailed it over the bar.
- Chloe Burst played the final 10 minutes in her second-ever collegiate contest and fired a shot from distance in the 84th minute.
- Wake Forest secured the three points and defeated Pitt, 2-0.
- The Demon Deacons are currently ranked No. 2 in United Soccer Coaches Poll, the highest ranking in program history.
- Additionally, Wake Forest sits fourth in the RPI and second in the TopDrawerSoccer poll.
- Wake Forest now has 16 points in ACC action, putting them in third with three games left to play.
- Hanks continued her great junior campaign with a goal and an assist against the Panthers.
- This was her fifth game of the season with multiple goal contributions and second-consecutive outing doing so.
- She now has a team-best eight goals, seven assists and 23 total points, including a goal in each of the last four matches, the longest stretch of her career.
- She is now five points away from cracking the top 10 in program history for a single season.
- With the assist on Hanks' goal, Emily Colton has now recorded at least one goal contribution in eight of her last 10 appearances for the Demon Deacons and is second on the team with 16 total points.
- Additionally, her four assists rank third on the team.
- Colton was recently ranked as the No. 2 player in the nation by TopDrawerSoccer.
- Emily Murphy has been incredible over her last four games, scoring three times, notching three assists and being involved in multiple other scoring opportunities for the Demon Deacons.
- Additionally, she has 19 goals and 18 assists for her collegiate career, putting her at 56 total points.
- The Deacs enter the match ranked in the top five of the ACC in multiple categories, including goals-against average (.643), shots per game (18.86) and corners per game (6.71).
- Individually, Caiya Hanks ranks fourth in the ACC in total points (23), sixth in goals (8) and seventh in assists (7).
- Emily Murphy is right behind Hanks with six assists.
- Individually, Caiya Hanks ranks fourth in the ACC in total points (23), sixth in goals (8) and seventh in assists (7).
- The Demon Deacons have three players with double-digit points and seven players with five or more so far in 2024.
- Caiya Hanks - 23 points (8 goals, 7 assists)
- Emily Colton - 16 points (6 goals, 4 assists)
- Emily Murphy - 12 points (3 goals, 6 assists)
- Sierra Sythe - 9 points (3 goals, 3 assists)
- Anna Swanson - 7 points (3 goals, 1 assist)
- Nikayla Small - 7 points (2 goals, 3 assists)
- Hannah Johnson - 5 points (2 goals, 1 assist)
- In goal, Valentina Amaral improved to 7-1-1 in games she's started, and has only allowed five goals over 945 minutes of action for a ridiculous .47 career goals-against average.
- With seven-consecutive games unbeaten, Wake Forest is on its longest ACC unbeaten stretch in program history.
- It marked the eighth clean sheet of the season for Wake Forest and fourth in ACC play.
- Emily Murphy made her 70th-collegiate appearance.
- Abbie Colton made her 40th-career appearance.
- Hannah Johnson made her 40th-career appearance.
The Demon Deacons will now return home for a massive Big Four clash against the No. 1-ranked Duke Blue Devils at Spry Stadium on Sunday night.
The match is slated for 6 p.m. and will be shown live on ACC Network Extra.
Follow The Deacs
Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | #GoDeacs
Team Stats
WFU
Pitt
Goals
2
0
Shots
11
14
Shots on Goal
5
1
Saves
1
3
Corners
4
4
Fouls
8
13
Scoring Plays
Caiya Hanks (8)
Assisted By: Emily Colton
GOAL by WFU Hanks, Caiya Assist by Colton, Emily.
23:19
Emily Murphy (3)
Assisted By: Caiya Hanks , Emily Morris
GOAL by WFU Murphy, Emily Assist by Hanks, Caiya and Morris, Emily.
52:08
Game Leaders
mid
Shots
2
SOG
2
Goals
1
Assists
1
Shots
3
SOG
2
Goals
1
Assists
0
Shots
2
SOG
1
Goals
0
Assists
1
Shots
0
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
1
Players Mentioned
Goalkeeper
/ Women's Soccer
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's Soccer
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Defender
/ Women's SoccerMidfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's Soccer
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's SoccerForward
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's SoccerFootball Media Availability (10/16/25)
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