Tori Powell leads young hokies to an offensive renaissance

Ishan Lamba

Soccer Beat Writer

August 8, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Tori Powell is no stranger to playing against opponents that are a few years older than her.

When Virginia Tech lost seven seniors following the 2019 season, and three juniors played on limited minutes the next season in a pandemic-shortened year, the Hokies had to start fresh.

Hoping to bolster the team with youth and talent, and that was in the midst of an 0-5 start to the 2020-21 season, Tech looked no further than its freshman forward, who typically played travel soccer against girls that were as many as two years older than her throughout her teen years.

Now going into her sophomore year, the Haymarket, Va. native is defined by her aggressive, yet selfless, play that generates an abundance of offensive chances. She has lived and breathed soccer since she was three-years-old, inspired by her older brother Ryan.

“Having an older brother that played soccer always made Tori extremely competitive and able to play beyond her years,” Powell’s mother, Nancy, told 3304 Sports. “She ‘played up’ as much as they allowed during her recreational soccer years.”

Powell started playing soccer at Virginia Soccer Academy when she was eight. That was before transitioning to FC Virginia DA two years later, a travel soccer team that ranks as one of the best soccer clubs in the country. There, she played under head coach Christian Cziommer for most of her club years before transitioning to coach Bobby Puppione during her final season.

For her club team, Powell was an offensive powerhouse, scoring 25 goals in as many games during the 2017-18 season, the sixth-most in the country. Her prolific goal scoring caught the eye of the Virginia Tech coaching staff, whom are no strangers to FC Virginia, regularly attending practices.

She said she felt the most comfortable with the Hokie scouts, and during a visit to Blacksburg, she met with head coach Chugger Adair, whom she said was a ‘good mix’ of both her former club coaches. Powell said she felt like she fit in with the culture and Blacksburg community. It pushed her to feel a sense of home as she chose Virginia Tech over schools like Virginia and Georgia.

“[Adair is] like a combination of [Cziommer and Puppione],” Powell said. “Also, I loved the school spirit of Tech and coming from Northern Virginia, my friends that already went to Tech always mentioned how much they loved the area.”

She was looking forward to a strong final club season before coming to Virginia Tech when disaster struck. She suffered a devastating Lisfranc tear, an injury that results if the ligaments that support the midfoot are torn, during a practice in May 2019 and was sidelined her final club season, and it even threatened to derail the start of her college career too.

Initially, Powell and her doctors didn’t think her injury was all that serious; she spent months going back and forth between crutches and a walking boot, while trying to return to the field as soon as possible. Later, after a series of tests, her doctors found the Lisfranc tear.

She graduated high school in January 2020, and arrived in Blacksburg a few weeks later, still nursing her injury. Powell met with team doctors and underwent physical therapy at Tech. After intense treatment, she was ready for her freshman season later in the fall.

Entering the season, she brought an undervalued asset to the table for the Hokies.

Energy.

“Scoring goals is great, but also having that defensive side to attacking is important too,” Powell told 3304 Sports in an interview in May. ”Channeling the defensive side with the offensive side creates a big difference.”

Additionally, she mentioned that she enjoys playing under Adair and likes his aggressive coaching style.

“[Adair] knows how to get me going,” Powell said. “I’m a passion player and if I have a couple bad touches and you can tell that I’m frustrated, he’ll be like ‘come on, get the next one, focus on the next one’. It just really helps to have someone who can get you out of it.”

Powell said that Adair’s history as a player also affected his coaching relationship with her, given that they both play the same position.

“He was a center forward himself and he really likes me to be in the middle,” Powell continued. “Keeping me central is helpful because I have a tendency to want to be involved with play so I’ll go out wide when I need to stay central. So having those reminders helps.”

The system seems to be working for her, and the stats show it.

In 2015, with multiple members of the 2013 College Cup team still on the roster, the Hokies averaged 2.24 goals per game. That dipped the following year to 1.58 and in 2017 and 2018, they averaged less than a goal a game. But In 2019, they bounced back to 1.38 goals a night.

After shedding its experience, Virginia Tech scored just one goal in the first five games of 2020-21. However, after the rocky start, on the foot of Powell and Emily Gray, Tech turned it around in dramatic fashion, averaging 2.5 goals per game while winning eight of its final 12 games.

And for her efforts, Powell was named to the All-ACC Freshman Team after scoring seven goals and accruing 18 points while the Hokies surged in the second half of their shortened 2020 season.

Looking to this fall and beyond, Powell wants to continue to be impactful, not only to her team, but also around the entire collegiate landscape.

“I’m never really fully satisfied with doing ‘well’,” Powell said. “I always want to be the best and carry that forward.”

As the 2021 season approaches, Powell seems poised to lead the Hokies’ strong offensive attack to success and put the rest of the NCAA on notice.