hokies hit reset button on season with 5-0 drubbing of miami

Ishan Lamba

Staff Writer

October 21, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Senior midfielder Emily Gray stood over the ball, after already having another monster performance, surveying the box. She spotted her teammate Allie Lewis and delivered a ball directly to her. Lewis leaped above her defender and glanced it into the back of the net, and scored her first career goal.

“It felt so good,” Lewis recounted after the match. “Emily gave me the best ball and all I had to do was head it in. It was funny because [head coach Chugger Adair] told me ‘Allie you gotta get a corner today,’ so it was exciting to get one for sure.”

Lewis’ goal cemented a dominant 5-0 home victory from Virginia Tech (9-5-2, 3-3-2 ACC) following its three-game ACC losing streak.

Trying to restart their season, the team the Hokies hoped to use as the catalyst was the Miami Hurricanes (4-10, 1-7 ACC), a team they thrashed at home last season 8-2 after a 1-6 start to the season that kick-started their 2020-21 campaign.

Prior to the match, the team honored Ryland Harris, a friend of the team that passed away recently due to cancer. A yellow ribbon was painted on the field to pay tribute to pediatric cancer and they donned pink uniforms for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

“I think it was really special for all of us… it allowed us to think about things bigger than just the game,” defender Emma Steigerwald commented.

“We’ve just been trying to support him and his family the best we can so having this opportunity to really come together and do this for him was such a big deal,” Lewis added.

As the match began, so did the Hokies’ aggression.

Right away, forward Tori Powell pressed the ball into the box and put the Miami backline to work.

It wouldn’t take long for the ball to hit the back of the net, courtesy of Gray, the new ACC goal leader. Fellow midfielder Emma Pelkowski set up the play, intercepting a clear and allowing Gray to angle the shot well enough to get past the outstretched arms of Melissa Dagenais just nine minutes in.

The Hokies would quickly double the lead thanks to a setup by forward Powell in the 20th minute. Her cross from the end line managed to slip behind everybody except for Pelkowski, who was sitting right in front of the net, ready to cash in.

That would be the last of the action for Powell as she spent the remainder of the game on the bench with flu-like symptoms.

While ordinarily, the loss of just one of the big three up front wouldn’t be a huge setback, Virginia Tech was also without its star forward, Nicole Kozlova, who is currently playing for the Ukraine women’s national team in World Cup qualifiers.

“It’s challenging because you never know how people are going to respond, but I think our group did a really good job,” Adair said about Kozlova’s absence. “I’m really proud of them and the team effort.”

Without two of the biggest playmakers on the team, Gray would have to shoulder a lot of the responsibility, and she felt more than comfortable in that role.

“I didn’t feel like there was a challenge to be honest,” Gray said. “Going into the game, we thought it was going to be, but once we got started, we were zipping the ball around, which is kudos to [the defense] for moving the ball well and the forwards, [Allie George] and [Sophie Maltese], stepped up big today.”

She backed up that talk with yet another goal in the 37th minute. Similar to VT’s second goal, a cross rolled behind everybody in the box except for Gray who, despite slipping, regained her footing to put in the Hokies’ third goal of the night.

That goal would move her to a tie for first in the ACC with 11 goals (Diana Ordonez, Virginia) and first in points (28). The goal also secured her fourth two-plus goal match of the season.

The rest of the half was dictated by a lockdown defensive performance, thanks to performances by Lewis and Steigerwald. Lewis gave the credit to goalkeeper Alia Skinner.

“Alia sorts us out so well in the back, she will not let us slack on any marking,” Lewis told 3304 Sports after Thursday’s match. “She puts out someone to mark, we mark her and give it our best and win the 50/50 balls. Even if we lost it, we made sure to get it back quickly, so it was that intensity in the back that allowed us to play well.”

Lewis would turn that defense into offense, scoring one of two goals in a quiet second half.

With such a comfortable cushion, Adair rotated in his bench players to give them reps going into the postseason, including subbing Skinner out for Lauren Hargrove in the 85th minute.

That clinched the sixth clean sheet on the season for Skinner and fifth at home.

Holly Weber would punch in a late goal with a shot that took a deflection off a Miami defender that got past backup goalkeeper Tyler Speaks to put the nail in the coffin and secure the 5-0 win.

The win seemed to reinvigorate a Virginia Tech team downtrodden after three tight in-conference losses.

“It feels very good, not only just the win, but the way we played was also very good,” Adair said. “Good quality ball movement, good efficient passing and crisp play. Miami broke us down a few times and had a few chances but we stepped up and defended and kept a clean sheet.”

With the win, Virginia Tech moves to eighth in the ACC with 11 points. Since the ACC tournament is a six-team tournament, the Hokies are on the outside looking in. In order to qualify, they just about need to win-out.

“We gotta win out and control those moments as far as our season goes,” Adair said.

From there, Tech will need to rely on a number of results going its way for teams immediately ahead of them (North Carolina, Clemson, and Wake Forest), including a number of upsets.

Despite the non-existent offensive performance tonight, Miami may be able to play that spoiler role. Having been eliminated from postseason play, the Hurricanes play Virginia and UNC to close out the season, which could have major implications should they win either game.

Virginia Tech closes out the regular season in its remaining matches at home against Boston College on Sunday and on the road against Syracuse next week.

“We’ve got a very good Boston College team coming in here Sunday. Win that, get three points, and keep building our resume for the NCAA tournament. Those are the things we can control.”