Wake Forest Shutouts VCU to Cap Perfect Weekend

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Freshman accounted for three of the four Wake Forest goals, as the Deacs rolled to a 4-0 victory over VCU on Sunday afternoon at Kentner Stadium.

The shutout marked the first of the season for Wake Forest (2-3, 0-0 ACC) as goalkeeper Ellie Todd continued her strong play to start her junior campaign.

Finding the back of the cage for the third time in her career, sophomore Mia Schoenbeck opened the scoring for Wake Forest off a Demon Deacon penalty corner with 2:30 left in the opening quarter of play.

The rest of Wake's goals came from first-year Deacs players, including the second-straight game with a goal for Mia Montag and Lauren Storey, and the first career goal for Sarah Mudd.

Mudd beat the VCU goalie one-on-one with a nice move to the outside to double the Wake Forest lead at 2-0 with just over six minutes left in the half off a great pass from senior Ashley Hart.

With her third goal of the weekend, Storey sent a laser into the bottom left corner of the cage to make it 3-0 before the half.

Scoring the first goal of the match against App State, Montag capped the scoring against VCU on a shot ripped from the right side to beat the Rams keeper and push the advantage to 4-0.

The four goals in back-to-back matches marked the highest offensive output for the Deacs since scoring six goals in three-straight matches against Lafayette, UC Davis and Cal back in 2022.

How It Happened

Wake Forest controlled early possession in the first five minutes as both teams looked for the match's first shot.
The Deacs found their rhythm 10 minutes into the action, as a shot by freshman Lauren Storey generated the first penalty corner of the match for Wake Forest.
- Storey nearly gave Wake the early lead with a shot just wide of the cage.
Taking advantage of their second corner in less than a minute, freshman Mia Montag inserted into Storey, who laid the pass beautifully to preseason All-ACC selection Mia Schoenbeck.
- Schoenbeck fired into the cage for her first goal of the season to put the Deacs up 1-0.
After a dangerous corner attempt from VCU, the Deacs ran a flawless counter with senior Ashley Hart finding freshman Sarah Mudd on the attack.
- Mudd beat the VCU goalie one-on-one with a nice move to the outside to double the Wake Forest lead at 2-0 with just over six minutes left in the half.
Wake extended the lead to three just six minutes later.
- Senior Brooke McCusker sent a pass into the circle from near midfield that found the stick of Storey, who sent a laser into the bottom left corner of the cage to make it 3-0.
Goalkeeper Ellie Todd made her second save of the quarter to preserve the 3-0 advantage for the Deacs going into halftime.
Todd came out strong to start the second half, coming up with another pair of saves off a Ram penalty corner to keep VCU off the board.
Generating their first offensive chance of the fourth quarter, Wake Forest pushed the advantage to 4-0.
- On a deflection off the stick of McCusker, Montag found herself with open space in the circle, let a shot rip from the right side and beat the VCU keeper to extend the lead to 4-0 in favor of the Deacs.
The Wake defense held strong despite three corners from VCU in the final 15 minutes of play to preserve the shutout win.

Quotables
"We were super intentional on continuing to grow within each of our lines. I was so impressed with the tenacity we showed over the weekend to be able to come back and play another hard opponent in VCU. We capitalized on our scoring opportunities in a big way. VCU exposed a few things that we'll take a look at and make sure we are learning the lessons we need to learn in this victory. We'll continue to grow in our transition game and defense as we start conference play next week at Boston College." - head coach Jen Averill

Up Next
Wake Forest travels north to open ACC play at Boston College on Friday, Sept. 20. First touch against the Eagles is set for 5 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.

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Team Stats

Lauren Storey

Mia Montag

Sarah Mudd

Mia Schoenbeck

Players Mentioned

Ashley Hart

Brooke McCusker

Mia Montag

Sarah Mudd

Mia Schoenbeck

Lauren Storey

Ellie Todd

Wake Forest Athletics