Cary – Redshirt junior forward Ronnie Bouemboue scored two goals and added an assist to lead the No. 8 seed Wolfpack (9-8-1) past the No. 9 seed Hokies (5-13-1) in the play-in game of the ACC Tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park on Monday. The win was the Pack’s sixth in its last seven games. The win advances State into the quarterfinals of the tournament where it will face the No. 1 seed and top-ranked Wake Forest team at 5:30 p.m. The Demon Deacons are the defending national champions and have gone undefeated this season going 17-0-1. Bouemboue said the Pack is not going to treat this game differently from any other game.”They’re a good team and we know that,” Bouemboue said. “But, we’re not going to let that get to us. It’s soccer. It’s a 90 minute game. They will have 11 players and we’ll have 11 players.”After pressuring the Hokie’s goalkeeper early in the game, Bouemboue finally got the Pack on the scoreboard with a header off of a Kris Byrd cross in the 33rd minute of the game to put State up 1-0 early.The Hokies owned the early portion of the second half, tying the game at 1-1 when Hunter Cheatham put in a low cross into the box for an easy goal in the 63rd minute. But Bouemboue answered quickly, turning on a pass into the box from Chrystel Bakong to slip the ball past Virginia Tech goalkeeper Thomas St. Germain. The Hokies would continue to pressure the N.C. State defense, but junior forward Federico Nachmann put the game away for the Pack with a breakaway goal in the 90th minute. Bouemboue said the team has been successful because of the improved play of the defense.”A lot of people look at the forwards and the attacking part of the team, but our defense has really stepped up since the beginning part of the season,” Bouemboue said. “Those four guys in the back really played their heart out every single game toward the end of the season. [Goalkeeper] Chris Widman and the back four, they’re keeping us into this game.”The win over Virginia Tech is the latest in a revitalization the men’s soccer team has experienced in the second half of the season. The team started off the year 1-5-1. When it finally got its first ACC win against Boston College on Sept. 27, the game was later forfeited due to an NCAA rule violation. But since October, State has gone 7-2-0 with its only losses coming against No. 1 Wake Forest and No. 6 Maryland. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Christopher Widman, who had three saves on Monday, said it just took time for the Wolfpack to learn to play together.”It just took a while. We got used to playing with some new guys,” Widman said. “We kept working hard in practice and goals started going in. We started playing better defense, and everything all-around just improved”Coach George Tarantini said the team’s newfound success has been a result of the players coming together, and the coaching staff had very little to do with it.”I believe in players. I know coaches are very, very important. But for all my life, I have believed in players,” Tarantini said. “A group of players in the middle of the season said we’re going to win, despite what anybody says, despite what anybody tells us, and we became a family.” State has already faced Wake Forest once this season, losing 4-1 at the N.C. State Soccer Stadium Oct. 11. Tarantini said the game is a chance for the Wolfpack to prove again they can compete with the conference’s elite teams. “That’s a wonderful opportunity,” Tarantini said. “Tomorrow, we get to play against one of the best teams in a long, long time. They won the national championships. They’ve got touch, they’ve got speed and they’re well coached.”