Road to Germantown update: ACC Tournament field set as regular season play concludes, Wake Forest grabs third

If anyone is going into the ACC Tournament with a full head of steam, it’s the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (11-3-4, 4-1-3), who capped off the regular season last night by running past the previously unbeaten No. 1 Maryland Terrapins (14-1-2) to clinch the conference’s third seed.

Sean Okoli, Luca Giminez, Ross Tomaselli and Danny Wenzel scored four goals on the normally steady Maryland defense which had played a big role in the team not dropping a single match the entire regular season until the final day. Wake Forest’s second-ranked defense in the ACC held the top-ranked Maryland offense to two goals but it was the dynamic Demon Deacon goal scorers who were the story of the night.

Okoli, a sophomore Seattle Sounders product from Washington, scored his 10th goal this season which is good for third in the conference. Giminez scored his seventh goal for the red hot Wake Forest offense, which will face sixth seeded Virginia (9-6-2, 3-4-1) at home in the first round of the tournament on Nov. 6.

Maryland and North Carolina had already clinched the top two seeds going into the final day of the regular season play. North Carolina defeated Boston College (8-5-4, 3-2-3), who had been tied with Wake Forest for third going into the evening, 4-0 which gave the Demon Deacons third place by a three point margin.

In other action, Clemson (6-8-4, 3-2-3) beat Virginia Tech (6-9-3, 0-7-1) 3-0 to finish above .500 in the conference and hold grab fourth place while surpassing Boston College, Virginia beat NC State (10-9-0, 1-7-0) 2-1 in overtime, and Duke (7-7-1, 3-4-1) remained idle finishing in seventh place.

2012 ACC Tournament First Round

Monday (Play-in match)

#8 NC State vs. #9 Virginia Tech (at Maryland’s Ludwig Field) – 1 p.m.

Tuesday

#8 NC State or #9 Virginia Tech at #1 Maryland – 7 p.m.

#7 Duke at #2 North Carolina – 7 p.m.

#6 Virginia at #3 Wake Forest – 7 p.m.

#5 Boston College at  #4 Clemson – 7 p.m.

2012 ACC Tournament Semifinals and Championship Match

Friday, Nov. 9

Semifinal 1 – 5:30 p.m.

Semifinal 2 – 8 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 11

ACC Championship – Noon