When I took the ESPN.com Best of 2007 quiz to vote for my favorites of 2007, it made me think of all the ACC Championship teams of 2007 that deserve props…

NCAA Women’s Field Hockey National Champs: UNC

NCAA Men’s Soccer National Champs: Wake Forest

NCAA Women’s Golf Team National Champ: Duke

NCAA Men’s Tennis National Champ:

• Singles Champ: Somdev Devvarman- UVA

NCAA Women’s Tennis National Champs:

• Singles Champ: Audra Cohen-Miami
• Team Champ: Georgia Tech
• Doubles Champs: Sara Anundsen & Jenna Long- UNC

Ohio State was out for blood yesterday….literally.  But Wake’s men’s soccer team ended up beating Ohio State in the College Cup Championship game.  The tournament was played right in our back yard at SAS Soccer Park in Cary and it was Wake’s first NCAA title in men’s soccer.  Wake has 7 other national titles: 3 in men’s golf, 3 in field hockey, and 1 in baseball in the 50’s.

Both teams played very aggressively leading to lots of fouls and blood.  Wake’s capitan, Julian Valentine, was kicked unintentionally by Ohio State’s Roger Espinoza, gashing his face with his cleats and leaving Wake playing a man down for a few minutes.  If you look in the pic below, Valentine is #4 at the bottom- and you can see his battle wound.

The Buckeyes had 10 shots in the first half, but the Deacs’ defense gave them none in the second half.  Ohio State is known to have one of the best defenses in the nation, and they looked like the best team in the nation in the first half.  But towards the end of the second half they had to replace injured left back, Tim Gabel, with a freshman that Wake’s leading scorer, Cody Arnoux, was able to dominate. 

6 teams from the ACC played in the tournament, but only Wake and Virginia Tech made it to the quarterfinals and they went head-to-head in the semifinals.  Wake pulled through beating VT 2-0, getting sweet revenge after losing in the semifinals last year to California-Santa Barbara in penalty kicks.

One of our own homegrown athletes, Raleigh native, Zack Schilawski, scored the game winning goal.  The sophomore Forward/Midfielder led the Cary High School soccer team in scoring all 4 of his years there, and was the capitain of the team his Sophomore-Senior years of High School.  While he was at Cary High he was named All-North Carolina, All-Region and All-South his sophomore-senior years.  In his freshman year at Wake he played in all 25 games last season.  In his freshman year at Wake, Schilawski had 6 goals and 4 assists and was named to the ACC All-Freshmen team.  This year he had 9 goals and 4 assists…and he got to end the season with a National Title in the place he started playing soccer…Cary NC.

CONGRATS DEACS!