No. 1 Florida State clinches ACC regular season title, finishing undefeated

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The No. 1 Florida State women’s soccer team (14-0-1, 8-0-1) clinched the outright ACC Regular Season Championship and completed the first full undefeated regular season in school history in a 5-0 win over NC State (3-9-6, 2-4-3) Thursday evening on Senior Night.

Both teams got some great looks early in the first half, but it was Florida State who converted in the 43rd minute as Sophia Nguyen sent a ball into the box that bounced around and found the foot of Lauren Flynn who converted to give FSU the 1-0 lead into the half.

Much like every other game this season, FSU came out strong in the second half, as they took just three minutes to add to their lead with Flynn scoring her second goal of the game. Less than a minute later, Leilanni Nesbeth pushed the ball up the field to Katelyn Zipay who dribbled past her defender and took a shot that snuck past the goalie for her third goal of the season.

Just four minutes later, Taylor Huff sent a free kick to the back post where Lauren Flynn was there for the header to score her first career hat trick after scoring just three career goals prior to Thursday night. Flynn is the first FSU player to record a hat trick since teammate Onyi Echegini on Sept. 16, 2022, against Boston College. Flynn’s hat trick was the 21st in school history.

FSU was unstoppable for the first 10 minutes of the second. FSU’s first three goals in the second half came in just over a five-minute span.

Olivia Garcia added one more goal for the Seminoles as Nguyen found her at the back post for the easy header. This was Garcia’s second goal of the season. FSU ends the season with 36 goals in ACC play which is the second-most in ACC history and was just one shy of North Carolina’s 37 goals in 2007.

FSU will enter next week’s ACC Tournament as the top seed and will face the winner of North Carolina and Pitt on Thursday night at 8 p.m. in Cary, N.C. North Carolina and Pitt will square off at 8 p.m. on Sunday night. The ACC Championship Game will take place on Sunday, Nov. 5 at noon on ESPNU.