Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech women's soccer program started its spring training season today and, with it, is also set to announce its 2020 spring season schedule. The slate has five competition days and includes a pair of home matches.
Follow our twitter account @HokiesWSoccer for the most up-to-date information, which will include opponents and start times for these events, but below is Tech's 2020 spring schedule.
2020 Spring Schedule
- Feb. 29 – Spring Event at Richmond vs. George Mason, James Madison and Richmond
- March 5 – Home match vs. Liberty
- March 29 – at Southern Soccer Showcase vs. High Point and one more opponent at BB&T Park Fields in Winston-Salem, N.C.
- April 4 – Road match at Wake Forest
- April 19 – Home match vs. JMU
With the announcement of the spring competition slate, it's a good time to get some insight from the head coach of the women's program Chugger Adair, as he answers a few questions in preparation for the 2020 fall season.
Q: What are your final thoughts on the 2019 season?
CA: "Now that I've had some more to reflect, I think the season went well, I'm very proud of the team and what we did throughout the year. There is no question I was disappointed in our final game. Xavier did a good job, was solid on the night and did what they needed to do to win. I think we didn't do a good job in that match and being prepared from the start. I have to look at what we did from our last ACC game to end the season and heading into the NCAA preparation and try to figure out how to get better moving forward. I'm proud of the team, we dealt with a lot of different issues and injuries throughout the season and the student-athletes did a very good job buying into the group. I'm also proud that we made the NCAA tournament. I think that it is very difficult to make the NCAA tournament with so many good women's soccer programs out there. There's a number of strong conferences, and with our conference being so strong, but you also have the Big 12, the SEC, the Pac 12, there's some really very strong and competitive programs throughout all power 5s. Even going into the other conferences, Xavier was the Big East Champions, so there's good teams at every level in women's soccer so it's very difficult to make the tournament. So I was pretty proud of the group for how everything went this season."
Q: What are your priorities for the spring?
CA: "Well, we lose some experience on our back line and in goal, so we're definitely going to have to grow that defensive third, spine area and are going to have to put a lot of effort into that. We need to get some kids experience playing. We need to see how they do in moments of getting significant minutes in real games as opposed to just training. We are going to have to build on that defensive unit, and also work on how we defend as a group, how we play out and then also we need to work on scoring goals. I think we scored a few more goals than we did the year before but I think we still need to be more dangerous as a group going forward and taking more chances that we have created. We have to be cleaner in that attacking third. One of the things as well, when you look at 2018 and 2019, we were really good in 2018 on set pieces, in 2019 we struggled on set pieces. We had some of the same personnel, so that is something that we have to maybe work on - having better quality service, our consistency, our movement, and spending more time on the training grounds working on that."
Q: What are your thoughts on the spring schedule?
CA: "Well, I think it's a good schedule for us. We're playing some teams we are familiar with and that we have seen over the years. Those teams are going to challenge us, test us and allow us opportunities to try to see where we're at. They'll test us on the defensive side, our ability to possess the ball, but also make us work to try and score goals and go forward. I think it's pretty balanced. We're trying to play a variety of different opponents. We're playing a lot of local Virginia teams which makes it a little like inner-state battles that we have and we're extending ourselves with playing Wake Forest, a conference foe who is very good. So they'll test us in all different angles which we're excited about."
Q: How will you work this spring with your goalkeepers, in trying to find a replacement for Mandy McGlynn?
CA: "We have three different goalkeepers that we're working with every day that will be options for us. Matt (Gwilliam) is our goalkeeper coach and he is spending the majority of the time with them. We'll need to see how they respond in game situations that we haven't really seen much of right now. We're trying to prepare them and get them ready for games in terms of managing the back line, being in position to make the big saves and also not making mistakes. We'll need to have some consistency back there and that's something we're looking at. We have S.A. (Phillips), Alice (Hamel) and Dare (Burnett) all back returning, spending time with Matt and really training hard and putting their best foot forward trying to get ready for the fall. Also Alia (Skinner) is coming in and she's got pretty solid experience at the youth level. So, we have a good core that we can pull from and hopefully we'll get good depth from them as we move into the fall season."
Q: There are three new freshman who came early into the program. What are the positives for them?
CA: "There are many positives for those three. They have taken the initiative to come in early, to move on from high school and start their next-level experience, with training, academics and things like that. Ava (Veith) has come out and she's been fit. She's come out and has passed the fitness tests with the top results, the two different fitness tests we've done. She's been in the lead so that's been really good as she's prepared herself physically and she's mentally ready and looking to build off that as we get into soccer. Tori (Powell) hasn't been able to train because she's coming off of an ankle injury so she's been out a little bit, but we're looking for her to build and be ready for August. Same with Erin (Carleton), she's a little bit behind because she had shoulder surgery in the fall and is just getting back ready. So getting her fit and some game experience and getting her prepared for August is important for us. Off the field side, they are getting to learn about the culture, getting to learn about roles and how they can help the team, and seeing where they can make an impact. Plus, with academics, they are getting used to being a college student, life after high school and life away from home. So we're really proud of the group."
Q: Any final thoughts as the team starts the spring season?
CA: "I'm excited for the team and the future that we have. We're going to be a little bit younger than we were the past couple years, but I think we have some very good players coming in that can impact us and be very strong long-term players. That impact can help us stay as a top 25 program. I'd also like to say that I'm excited and proud to see a couple of our former players going on to play at the next level and I'm looking forward to watching their continued success as professionals."