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Women's Soccer

Irwin’s brace gives No. 25 Hokies 2-1 victory Thursday night

BLACKSBURG – Trailing by a goal deep into the second half, the No. 25 Virginia Tech women's soccer team used two Kelsey Irwin free kick goals to complete its comeback and register a 2-1 victory over Boston College on Thursday night at Thompson Field, the team's final home regular season match.
 
With the victory, coupled with the rest of the ACC results from Thursday night, the Hokies (11-3-2, 3-3-2 ACC) have moved into a tie for sixth place in the league standings with Notre Dame at 11 points. The top eight teams make the conference's postseason tournament.
 
Boston College (8-6-2, 1-6-1 ACC) did not have a shot on goal in the first half, but its second of the night gave the visitors a 1-0 lead in the 70th minute. Off a pass from Olivia Vaughn, Gaby Carreiro chipped a ball from close range over Tech goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn to the far post – which it hit and deflected in for her fourth goal of the year.
 
Tech, which had outshot the Eagles 9-3 in the first and 20-10 on the night, continued to battle and ended up drawing a foul in the 76th minute from about 22 yards out to the left side of the goal. Irwin's shot over the wall to the near post beat BC goalkeeper Maddie Murphy and evened the match.
 
Just eight minutes later, another foul was committed by Boston College, this time it was about 30 yards out to the right side of the goal. Irwin's shot hit almost in the exact same spot in the back of the net and gave the Hokies a 2-1 lead with 6:38 left on the clock.
 
For Irwin, it was her second and third goals of the season and she now has eight in her career. She also recorded her second career brace, as she scored twice last year at Villanova (Sept. 7).
 
McGlynn made three saves in the match, included a tremendous save just three minutes after allowing the first goal. McGlynn needed to punch the ball over the top of the goal on a shot by Francesca Venezia keeping Tech's deficit at one.
 
With the win, McGlynn has now won 11 matches in three of her four seasons at Tech – never accomplished before by a Hokies goalkeeper – and it was the 40th of her Tech career, which puts her second all-time at the school.
 
Quick Notes:

  • This was the 16th meeting between the two schools, and Tech improves to 5-8-3 all-time against the Eagles, and it was just the second win at home over BC (2007).
  • Jaylyn Thompson has now started 66 straight matches, the most since Kelsey Mitchell (2009-12) started all 88 games of her Tech career.
  • McGlynn is now at 56 straight and Emmalee McCarter owns the third longest streak at 35.
  • McGlynn has played 4,985:20 straight minutes since the last time she was substituted (Aug. 25, 2017 – 53 straight matches).
  • Irwin became the seventh Hokie with a game winner this year, the most since the 2014 season (also seven).
  • Irwin becomes the third Tech player this season with a brace (Nicole Kozlova and Emily Gray).
  • As a ranked team versus unranked opponents, Tech is now 63-4-5 all-time.

From Coach Adair:


From Kelsey Irwin:


Up Next:
The Hokies return to the field on Sunday, when they head to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to take on the third-ranked Tar Heels at Dorrance Field. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.
 Gallery: (10/24/2019) 2019 WOMEN'S SOCCER vs. BOSTON COLLEGE