After a record year that culminated in an unbelievable run to the Elite Eight, Virginia Tech women’s soccer hopes to continue that success in 2025.
A preseason top-15 squad in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, the Hokies got their feet wet with victories over High Point (2-0) and VCU (5-1) to open the campaign.
“I think we’ve done a lot of good things,” Tech head coach Chugger Adair told Tech Sideline Wednesday. “We’ve got some personalities in the attack we like going forward, we’ve got some kids who want to score goals and who can score goals, which is good. I think we have to get better at team defending and overall grittiness in defending and willingness to defend, so I think I’d like to see us fine-tune that a little bit.”
Last season’s team was balanced, with 13 different goal scorers — six players had multiple, led by Taylor Price’s six — blended with an experienced back line that produced nine clean sheets. There was significant depth, too, and that combination was key in the Hokies’ ranked wins over Florida State, Notre Dame, UCLA and Iowa.
Things look different this year, though. The core group of seniors, which learned from a disappointing 2023 and played with a chip on their shoulder last season, have departed. Allie George, Allie Lewis and Eden Skyers were staples in defense; Emma Pelkowski, Aino Vuorinen, Sophie Maltese and Lauren Gogal were crucial in the attack.
It’s a unique mix as a result. There’s still veteran leadership — keeper Lauren Hargrove is back after a 64-save season, center back Kylie Marschall eclipsed 2,000 minutes last year while Natalie Mitchell and Taylor Price have a combined 36 goals and 20 assists in their careers — but there are a ton of new faces.
Four freshmen — Hannah Pachan, Madi Boutot, Ellie Robertson and Syri Davis — started the first two matches while another, Letizia Rossi, started one. There’s also SMU transfer Eliana Salama, who tallied 14 goals and seven assists in three years in Dallas.
“We have a huge freshman class, but they’ve integrated really well, and I think it’s just a really well-rounded group,” Salama said. “We have a lot of girls who are able to step up, even though they’re young. … My freshman year was not as good as [how] they’re doing, so I’m like, ‘What are they feeding these kids?’ But honestly, they’ve been working really, really hard. They came ready to play and it’s definitely translating on the field.”
It’s worked well so far. After returning from an injury that forced her to miss three NCAA Tournament games, Price had a brace in the opener against High Point. Tech posted a shutout, too — a positive start for a defense that’s still meshing.
“I think we’re still trying to find our grit, to be honest with you,” Adair said. “That’s our defensive presence and our ability to push ourselves in defensive situations. I think some of our kids are good soccer players, but we have to really just roll your sleeves up and be willing to defend, and to try to win games, you have to compete, and we’re still trying to find that.”
The Hokies followed it up with a barrage of goals against VCU, a trend that began with Mitchell in the 13th minute. Pachan tacked on two in the first half while Salama notched her first Tech goal in the second and Samantha DeGuzman added a fifth late (on an assist from Pachan).
“Coming in as a transfer, my senior year, it meant everything, especially to score at home,” Salama said of her goal. “... I think it was super important for us going into [Clemson], a really, really good team. We have five different goal scorers now. … Hopefully that’s the first of many more to come.”
Tech’s goal: continue to build. Strong non-conference tests against Clemson — since no one else wanted to play the Hokies, per Adair — and Georgetown in the next few days will be solid benchmarks.
It’s not an easy schedule overall, though, as expected in the most challenging conference in college soccer. The Hokies will face each of the other five ACC teams that made the 2024 Elite Eight, including all four College Cup teams.
They get the reigning national champions in North Carolina at home in their league opener on Sept. 11. Then they travel to Wake Forest, last year’s runner-up, on Sept. 18. After a road trip to Stanford on Oct. 9, they have Duke and Notre Dame back-to-back at Thompson Field on Oct. 18 and Oct. 23, respectively.
To say Tech should be well-prepared for the postseason would be putting it mildly.
“Our goals are make the NCAA Tournament, ACC Tournament and then put a run together,” Adair said. “And I think we reassess from there every year and try to see what we can do. And we go through very difficult situations in conference and non-conference games that we feel like we’re tested fairly well throughout the season so we’re ready for the high-level NCAA Tournament games when we get there.
“We just want to give ourselves the opportunity to win a few significant games throughout the season and put ourselves in a place where we can hopefully put a run together and have the success we had last year.”
Staying healthy is crucial, too. Price is nursing a minor injury that forced her to miss the VCU contest, but the Hokies hope to have her back soon. She’s explosive when available, as she showed in the opener.
“We’re still kind of managing her minutes and making sure we take care of her to kind of build her back and not rush her back too much,” Adair said of Price. “But she wants to score goals. She’s got good box movement, she’s hungry. … We’re looking forward to her getting back on the field and give us a little bit more going forward.”
Meanwhile, junior forward Sarah Rosenbaum, who had three goals and two assists in 2024 after transferring from Wisconsin, has a more long-term injury that could keep her out all year.
It’s why depth is so important. Tech missed impactful starters in George and Vuorinen for stretches of time last season, yet other players stepped up and provided balance.
Solving that puzzle while picking up some quality wins along the way should have the Hokies ready for another postseason run.
“It’s all about taking it one game at a time,” Hargrove said. “... I came back because we want more, like we want to go further. We want to do as much [as last year], if not more. We can’t be looking ahead at the NCAA Tournament; we’ve got to be looking at tomorrow. …
“It’s one game at a time, and knowing that we have the potential to go that far, but we’ve got to put in the work every single day to build our résumé, get a good seed and then we go into the tournament. It’s one step at a time.”