The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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138 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Dean Dome, and it marked the first time that North Carolina Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams had lost to the Wolfpack in Chapel Hill. ■ Best Women's Team Win The 2014-15 women's basketball sea- son was challenging for head coach Wes Moore. Incoming freshman center Sara Boric from Bosnia was declared ineligible by the NCAA due to questions about her course load in Europe and did not suit up this year. In December, freshman guard Chloe Jackson broke her foot and never returned, and senior guard Krystal Barrett suffered a career-ending torn ACL. In February, junior wing Ashley Eli rup- tured her Achilles tendon, ending her sea- son. That left the Pack with seven scholar- ship players and two walk-ons for the final 10 games of the year, one of which was a home showdown against No. 10 Duke Feb. 22. Playing inspired during the annual Hoops 4 Hope game created to help benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund to fight breast cancer, the Pack made 12 of 25 three-point- ers to stun the Devils and prevail 72-59. ■ Best Upset Win When you are winless in ACC play like the men's soccer team were after three league matches, the prospects of going for your first conference victory against No. 5 Louisville, who had been victorious in its first three ACC matches, could have been daunting. NC State, though, was up for the chal- lenge Oct. 3 in Raleigh. The Pack scored two goals in the second half to get a 2-0 lead, and then held on for a 2-1 triumph despite being outshot 19-9 overall and 13-9 on goal. Rising junior goalie Alex McCauley stopped 12 Louisville shots in the win, and his classmate, defender Reed Norton scored his first career goal in what would prove to be the game-winner. ■ Recruiting Class Of The Year NC State women's tennis had never had a recruiting class ranked by TennisRecruit- ing.net prior to this year. In his first cycle as the head coach for the Wolfpack, Simon Earnshaw signed four players that were collectively ranked as No. 9 group of re- cruits nationally by the service. Bianca Moldovan of Livonia, Mich., the first-ever "blue chip" recruit to ink with the Pack, headlines the group. She is No. 23 overall in the national standings and has six wins against fellow blue-chip players. Barbara Mancera, from Mexico City, is one of the top players in Mexico, rising to as high as No. 4 in the national junior divi- sion rankings. Claudia Wiktorin of David- son, N.C., and Amanda Rebol of Duluth, Ga., are both listed as five-star tennis play- ers, with Witkorin having been previously listed as high as No. 25 in her class and Rebol at No. 59. For good measure, Earnshaw also brought in Mississippi State transfer Mar- tina Frantova, a native of Slovakia who went 13-11 in singles last year competing in spots two through four in the lineup for the Bulldogs. She will be a junior this up- coming season for the Pack. Last year, Earnshaw convinced former Louisiana Tech star Joanna Nalborska to transfer to NCSU. She led the Pack with 16 total singles wins last season. The ad- dition of the five newcomers should help Earnshaw turn around the NC State pro- gram quickly. ■ Senior Salutes These five seniors are among those who have completed their Wolfpack careers and left their marks on the fields of play. LEN'NIQUE BROWN-HOSKIN, WOMEN'S BASKETBALL When Brown-Hoskin was a freshman at Southern Cal, she came off the bench to score eight points and dish four assists and help the Trojans beat NC State at Reynolds Coliseum. That turned out to be just the be- ginning of her career at the historic venue. Brown-Hoskin transferred to NCSU af- ter that season, and, after redshirting, the San Antonio native started 78 games over the next three years as the Wolfpack's point guard. She averaged 7.2 points and 3.8 assists per game as a redshirt sophomore, but when she was inserted into the starting lineup for the final 12 games of the year those numbers improved to 8.7 points and 5.3 assists per contest. Brown-Hoskin started all 66 games she played over the next two years. She also turned into a three-point threat under the tutelage of head coach Wes Moore, hired before her redshirt junior season. Brown- Hoskin made 83 threes in that span, and she averaged double-digits scoring (10.5 points per game) for the first time in her career last season. Despite only playing three seasons, Brown-Hoskin totaled 366 assists in a Wolfpack uniform, the 10th best mark all time in school history. STEPHEN COETZER, MEN'S SWIMMING Coetzer, a native of Wilmington, N.C., played a role in the remarkable turnaround of the men's swimming program under the direction of head coach Braden Holloway. As a sophomore, Coetzer broke the school record in the 200-yard backstroke The Wolfpack women's basketball team buried 12 of 25 three-pointers to stun No. 10 Duke 72-59 in the annual Hoops 4 Hope game Feb. 22. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN