Texas Tech University Athletics
Tech heads to No. 1 Duke for Round of 32
November 19, 2024 | Women's Soccer
The eighth-seeded Red Raiders will look to advance to the Round of 16 for the second straight year
DURHAM, N.C. – Fresh off a 2-1 win over LSU last Friday night in Lubbock, eighth-seeded Texas Tech will hit the road this weekend for a date with No. 1 overall seed Duke Friday night. First touch from Koskinen Stadium is set for 6:30 p.m. (ET)/5:30 p.m. (CT).
Looking to advance to the Round of 16 for the second straight season, Texas Tech enters Friday's matchup having won five straight true road games dating back to an Aug. 28 setback at Utah State.
Tech advanced to Friday's Round of 32 after closing out the 2-1 victory over LSU, where the Red Raiders used a pair of assists from 2024 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Macy Blackburn and goals from Taylor Zdrojewski and Skylar Haase.
After allowing a goal just 27 seconds into the half, the Red Raiders leaned heavily on goalkeeper Faith Nguyen who made three key saves to close out the Red Raiders sixth-straight First Round NCAA Tournament win. The Red Raiders are now 6-0-2 all-time at the John Walker Soccer Complex in the Opening Round of the NCAA Tournament.
On Friday night the Red Raiders will play their first true road game in the NCAA Tournament since the 2016 season when Tech played at Utah in the first round.
Tech played at home for all three NCAA Tournament matches last season and played neutral site matches against Virginia (Waco) and Michigan (Chapel Hill) in the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
MATCHUP: No. 8 Texas Tech (15-4-2) vs. No. 1 Duke (15-2-1)
DATE: Friday, November 22, 2024
TIME: 6:30 (ET)/5:30 (CT)
LOCATION: Durham, N.C. (Koskinen Stadium)
LAST TIME OUT:
Macy Blackburn had to two assists on a pair of magical crosses to Taylor Zdrojewski and Skylar Haase to power No. 8 Texas Tech to a 2-1 victory Friday night in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at the John Walker Soccer Complex.
In front of an electric crowd of nearly 1800 (1788), the eighth-seeded Red Raiders (15-4-2) used the first half strike from Zdrojewski (23rd minute) and a header from Haase (42nd minute) to take a 2-0 lead into the break. Blackburn, who has already broken the all-time assist record at Texas Tech, recorded her ninth and 10th assists of the season and the 32nd and 33rd of her career.
Blackburn with her two assists moved in solo 10th-place on the active career assists mark.
The goal from Zdrojewski came on yet another clinical free kick service from Blackburn, as the All-American and 2024 Defender of the Year clipped a perfect ball that found a cutting Zdrojewski in the middle of the Tigers 18-yard box. The forward hit the ball without taking a touch and slotted a rocket shot past LSU GK Audur Scheving and into the open net.
The goal for Zdrojewski was her team-leading 10th goal of the season.
Up by a goal, the Red Raiders continued to buzz in the final 20 minutes of the half, as Zdrojewski nearly scored her second goal of the night in 30th minute when she put a header on frame that beat Scheving before being cleared off the line by an LSU defender.
The header was made possible after a gorgeous service from midfielder Peyton Parsons.
Riding the momentum, finally found the all-important second goal just 21 seconds in the 42nd minute when freshman Millie Elwood found a streaking Blackburn.
The defender raced past the LSU backline and whipped a perfect ball that found a streaking Haase.
The nearly six-foot forward rewarded the strong service from Blackburn as she headed the ball into the bottom-right corner of the net and past a diving Scheving.
Just 27 seconds into the second half, LSU (9-9-3) responded using a goal from Amy Smith to pull to within 2-1.
Nursing the one goal lead, the Red Raiders got three key second half saves from goalkeeper Faith Nguyen to close out their fourth straight first round win and eighth first round win in nine appearances. Nguyen ended with five total saves on the night.
The goalkeeper was magical all night for the Red Raiders as she made the five clutch saves including a pair of acrobatic stops in the 12th and 67th minutes. The save in 12th minute was a diving stop on a One-V-One attempt with LSU forward Danielle Shannon.
Nguyen's second highlight save was an acrobatic punch of a rising shot from Ava Galligan that was destined for the top-right corner.
QUICK KICKS:
• Fresh off a 2-1 home victory over LSU on Friday night, the Red Raiders will hit the road this weekend for a Round of 32 matchup at No. 1 Duke.
• Despite the Red Raiders and Blue Devils meeting for the first time in program history, the two schools have quite a few connections as coach Tom Stone played for the Blue Devils from 1984-87 and led the Blue Devils to the 1986 National Title where he scored the game-winning goal in the Blue Devils 1-0 win over Akron.
• Stone played with current Duke Men's Soccer Head Coach John Kerr and played for current Duke WSOC coach Robbie Church who was an assistant on the 1986 Men's team. Kerr's daughter, Alex, played for the Red Raiders a season ago, where she helped lead the Red Raiders to the program's first Big 12 regular season title and a Round of 16 appearance.
• Despite being a contributor to last season's team that won 14 regular season matches and won the first Big 12 Regular Season title in program history, Texas Tech junior Macy Blackburn finally made her NCAA Tournament debut for the Scarlett and Black last weekend.
• Recording a pair of assists in the win, Blackburn was named to TopDrawer Soccer's Team of the Week.
• Blackburn, who missed last season's postseason run to the Round of 16, has made her return from injury in 2024, and has scored twice and recorded 10 assists this season. On Friday night she became the first player in program history to recorded back-to-back 10 assist seasons.
• The 2024 Big 12 Defender of the Year, Blackburn is the all-time assist leader in Texas Tech history, as the Keller native has recorded 33 career assists. Blackburn ranks 15th in the country in total assists (10) and 10th in the country in assists per game (.56).
• A quartet of Red Raiders have had career years for Tech in 2024, as forwards Skylar Haase, Kaitlyn Giametta, Taylor Zdrojewski and Peyton Parsons have combined to score 29 goals in 2024. Zdrojewski leads the way with 10 of those, followed by Parsons' nine. Giametta and Hasse have each added five. Coming into the season neither Haase nor Zdrojewski had scored in a game, while Parsons and Giametta had scored just once each.
• Scoring has been a good omen for the Red Raiders as despite losing two of the last three matches when scoring a goal, the Red Raiders are still 31-2-9 when scoring at least once in a match since Sept. 30, 2021. The two losses when scoring at least once in that span have come within the last four matches. The Red Raiders have won or tied 35 straight matches when scoring twice and are 43-2-1 in their last 46 games when reaching two goals.
Looking to advance to the Round of 16 for the second straight season, Texas Tech enters Friday's matchup having won five straight true road games dating back to an Aug. 28 setback at Utah State.
Tech advanced to Friday's Round of 32 after closing out the 2-1 victory over LSU, where the Red Raiders used a pair of assists from 2024 Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year Macy Blackburn and goals from Taylor Zdrojewski and Skylar Haase.
After allowing a goal just 27 seconds into the half, the Red Raiders leaned heavily on goalkeeper Faith Nguyen who made three key saves to close out the Red Raiders sixth-straight First Round NCAA Tournament win. The Red Raiders are now 6-0-2 all-time at the John Walker Soccer Complex in the Opening Round of the NCAA Tournament.
On Friday night the Red Raiders will play their first true road game in the NCAA Tournament since the 2016 season when Tech played at Utah in the first round.
Tech played at home for all three NCAA Tournament matches last season and played neutral site matches against Virginia (Waco) and Michigan (Chapel Hill) in the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
MATCHUP: No. 8 Texas Tech (15-4-2) vs. No. 1 Duke (15-2-1)
DATE: Friday, November 22, 2024
TIME: 6:30 (ET)/5:30 (CT)
LOCATION: Durham, N.C. (Koskinen Stadium)
LAST TIME OUT:
Macy Blackburn had to two assists on a pair of magical crosses to Taylor Zdrojewski and Skylar Haase to power No. 8 Texas Tech to a 2-1 victory Friday night in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at the John Walker Soccer Complex.
In front of an electric crowd of nearly 1800 (1788), the eighth-seeded Red Raiders (15-4-2) used the first half strike from Zdrojewski (23rd minute) and a header from Haase (42nd minute) to take a 2-0 lead into the break. Blackburn, who has already broken the all-time assist record at Texas Tech, recorded her ninth and 10th assists of the season and the 32nd and 33rd of her career.
Blackburn with her two assists moved in solo 10th-place on the active career assists mark.
The goal from Zdrojewski came on yet another clinical free kick service from Blackburn, as the All-American and 2024 Defender of the Year clipped a perfect ball that found a cutting Zdrojewski in the middle of the Tigers 18-yard box. The forward hit the ball without taking a touch and slotted a rocket shot past LSU GK Audur Scheving and into the open net.
The goal for Zdrojewski was her team-leading 10th goal of the season.
Up by a goal, the Red Raiders continued to buzz in the final 20 minutes of the half, as Zdrojewski nearly scored her second goal of the night in 30th minute when she put a header on frame that beat Scheving before being cleared off the line by an LSU defender.
The header was made possible after a gorgeous service from midfielder Peyton Parsons.
Riding the momentum, finally found the all-important second goal just 21 seconds in the 42nd minute when freshman Millie Elwood found a streaking Blackburn.
The defender raced past the LSU backline and whipped a perfect ball that found a streaking Haase.
The nearly six-foot forward rewarded the strong service from Blackburn as she headed the ball into the bottom-right corner of the net and past a diving Scheving.
Just 27 seconds into the second half, LSU (9-9-3) responded using a goal from Amy Smith to pull to within 2-1.
Nursing the one goal lead, the Red Raiders got three key second half saves from goalkeeper Faith Nguyen to close out their fourth straight first round win and eighth first round win in nine appearances. Nguyen ended with five total saves on the night.
The goalkeeper was magical all night for the Red Raiders as she made the five clutch saves including a pair of acrobatic stops in the 12th and 67th minutes. The save in 12th minute was a diving stop on a One-V-One attempt with LSU forward Danielle Shannon.
Nguyen's second highlight save was an acrobatic punch of a rising shot from Ava Galligan that was destined for the top-right corner.
QUICK KICKS:
• Fresh off a 2-1 home victory over LSU on Friday night, the Red Raiders will hit the road this weekend for a Round of 32 matchup at No. 1 Duke.
• Despite the Red Raiders and Blue Devils meeting for the first time in program history, the two schools have quite a few connections as coach Tom Stone played for the Blue Devils from 1984-87 and led the Blue Devils to the 1986 National Title where he scored the game-winning goal in the Blue Devils 1-0 win over Akron.
• Stone played with current Duke Men's Soccer Head Coach John Kerr and played for current Duke WSOC coach Robbie Church who was an assistant on the 1986 Men's team. Kerr's daughter, Alex, played for the Red Raiders a season ago, where she helped lead the Red Raiders to the program's first Big 12 regular season title and a Round of 16 appearance.
• Despite being a contributor to last season's team that won 14 regular season matches and won the first Big 12 Regular Season title in program history, Texas Tech junior Macy Blackburn finally made her NCAA Tournament debut for the Scarlett and Black last weekend.
• Recording a pair of assists in the win, Blackburn was named to TopDrawer Soccer's Team of the Week.
• Blackburn, who missed last season's postseason run to the Round of 16, has made her return from injury in 2024, and has scored twice and recorded 10 assists this season. On Friday night she became the first player in program history to recorded back-to-back 10 assist seasons.
• The 2024 Big 12 Defender of the Year, Blackburn is the all-time assist leader in Texas Tech history, as the Keller native has recorded 33 career assists. Blackburn ranks 15th in the country in total assists (10) and 10th in the country in assists per game (.56).
• A quartet of Red Raiders have had career years for Tech in 2024, as forwards Skylar Haase, Kaitlyn Giametta, Taylor Zdrojewski and Peyton Parsons have combined to score 29 goals in 2024. Zdrojewski leads the way with 10 of those, followed by Parsons' nine. Giametta and Hasse have each added five. Coming into the season neither Haase nor Zdrojewski had scored in a game, while Parsons and Giametta had scored just once each.
• Scoring has been a good omen for the Red Raiders as despite losing two of the last three matches when scoring a goal, the Red Raiders are still 31-2-9 when scoring at least once in a match since Sept. 30, 2021. The two losses when scoring at least once in that span have come within the last four matches. The Red Raiders have won or tied 35 straight matches when scoring twice and are 43-2-1 in their last 46 games when reaching two goals.
Players Mentioned
Defender
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
/ Women's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Goalkeeper
/ Women's Soccer
Forward/Midfielder
/ Women's Soccer
Forward
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