Football: A-For a season that started so dismally, what a change. Things couldn’t have looked worse for the Pack in a 34-0 drubbing in Columbia, S.C. to start the season. Add to that game the concussion of redshirt freshman quarterback Russell Wilson. Wilson wasn’t the only player to go down to injury — two of the Pack’s defensive cogs, Alan-Michael Cash and Nate Irving, both missed significant playing time. But all it took was to get those players back and the team completely changed. The defense became dominant, Wilson became the best quarterback in the ACC and the team won its last four games of the season, propelling the Pack into bowl eligibility for the first time in three years. Much of the credit has to go to coach Tom O’Brien, who kept at his team and helped them fight through injuries. In sweeping the state, O’Brien challenged the ACC’s other coaches, even verbalizing his belief that State is the strongest football program in North Carolina. The only unexcusable blemishes to the Pack’s record were in the Boston College or Maryland game, in which State needed one more stop to seal the victory, but couldn’t pull it off. If the secondary had been more consistent, or the offense didn’t sputter, the Pack could have found itself in the ACC Championship.-Compiled by Josh HarrellMen’s cross country: C-With former All-American Bobby Mack returning to the lineup for the Wolfpack, the team had high expectations going into the heart of the season. Unfortunately, State ended its season in disappointing fashion with Mack and redshirt junior John Martinez failing to gain All-American status, leading the Pack with 47th and 49th place finishes at the NCAA Championships.  Even more troubling for the team’s future, though, is the apparent breakdown in team discipline and motivation.  “There wasn’t a total commitment there from a few of our guys,” Martinez said after the NCAA Championships. “Next year, that will be different. It has to be. If coach doesn’t say something, then I will.”Although any other team might feel satisfied with a second place ACC finish, an at-large bid to the National Championships and consistent victories over UNC and Duke, this isn’t just any team. This is cross country — a program that has captured 12 ACC Championships since 1991 and nine national top-10 finishes. Next year, the team’s youth need to show the kind of yearning for victory that Mack epitomized with his second place finish at the Southeast Regional behind national runner-up Samuel Chelanga. However, in order to fully restore the team to its usual prominence, the young runners need to regain their focus, support potential recruits and cherish the legacy of winning that this program has boasted for so many years. -Compiled by Daniel EllisWomen’s cross country: C Although any other year, the women’s team would receive a failing grade for setting the record for the lowest ACC finish in the program’s history, this year’s team is different. After returning All-ACC senior Brittany Tinsley went down with a stress reaction in her hip over the summer, the team decided that the prospects of coming anywhere near an ACC title looked bleak.  Thus, coach Laurie Henes decided to redshirt Tinsley to preserve her eligibility for next season. In addition, Henes wisely chose to redshirt the entire core of veteran runners including junior Bona Jones and sophomore Colleen Wetherbee, both of whom missed the end of track season last spring.  Junior Kara McKenna and sophomore Marika Walker also watched from the sidelines as a team comprised entirely of freshmen and one sophomore ended the season with an 18th place finish at the Southeast Regional following their 10th place finish at the ACC Championships.  Luckily though, freshmen grading is often curved. Facing stiff competition from one of the toughest teams in the nation in Florida State, the Wolfpack women deserve a B for their resilience throughout the season. Hopefully, the freshmen will utilize the experience they gained this season to complement the plethora of talent that will return in 2009. -Compiled by Daniel EllisMen’s Soccer:  B-After starting the season with a dismal 1-5-1 record, the Wolfpack was able to gain some dignity back, finishing the season with a 9-9-1 record. In the team’s first seven games, the Pack was unable to put the ball between the goalposts on offense despite numerous opportunities.  During this span, the team had a shooting percentage of .063 scoring only seven goals on 111 attempts. The Pack finished the season winning eight of its last 12 games including one over 18th ranked Duke and one over Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament. This turn around can be directly related to an explosion of goals.The team scored 32 goals in the last 12 games on 131 attempts.  This gave them a .244 shooting percentage and 2.67 goals per game. State’s early struggles can be attributed to injuries and penalties, which left coach Tarantini with an inconsistent starting lineup and visible communication issues, which can be credited to the team’s youth. The Pack will return all of its major scorers for 2009 — only one goal in 2008 came from a senior. The team has the potential to be a force in the ACC next season if it can continue to play like it did in the last 12 games of the season and work on communication during the offseason.-Compiled by Jonathan LaughrunWomen’s Soccer: C The women’s soccer team produced a tale of two halves this season. N.C. State bolted out of the gate with a 7-0 record against lesser teams, but the combination of several key injuries and a conference that held eight out of the top-15 teams nationally for almost the entire year sent the Wolfpack plummeting back to where we all expected them to be: last in the ACC. In the end, State finished with an 8-12-0 record and was 0-10-0 in the ACC.  However, just about every single player had a better statistical season than all of last year, even though the team was unable to muster any offense against ACC opponents. Senior forward Lindsay Vera, who was named to the second team All-ACC for the third time in her tenure, was a big factor in even the team’s limited success.  The Pack did show fight throughout the season, especially from its young players who came in and made a dramatic impact on the program. Whoever replaces head coach Laura Kerrigan, who stepped away at the end of the season, inherits a very young team that only lost two starters, will be completely healthy and will for the first time have a decent stadium to show to recruits. -Compiled by Samuel T.O. BranchVolleyball: INCOMPLETE The volleyball team shattered all expectations in its first weekend of conference play in late September with a season opening win over Boston College, the program’s first win over an ACC opponent in 56 tries. Two days later, the team collected a win over Maryland to begin the season 2-0 for the first time since 1988. A later win against Virginia had the team 3-3 in ACC play going into its home match against North Carolina, a team the Wolfpack had not beaten since 1997. The Tar Heels defeated the Pack 3-1 in front of the team’s second biggest crowd of the year, touching off a 14-match losing streak in which State won just three games and was swept by BC, Maryland and UVa. The energy of the young team waned in October and the leadership of Arlee Tamietti that had been so key in the team’s 9-11 start withered along with the leaves until the season ended against the Heels in Chapel Hill with a 25-15, 25-14, 25-16 blowout. The team that began in September with such promise and tenacity didn’t even bother to show up after Oct. 11, resulting in a grade of incomplete. Had the team finished strong, State would have earned at least a B, but now the young team must look toward next season. -Compiled by Ty Johnson