Virginia Tech Blanks liberty 3-0 in regular season opener

Nick Cheshire

Soccer Beat Writer

August 20, 2021

BLACKSBURG — After a weather delay and the dark clouds that loomed over the Virginia Tech campus parted to reveal a picturesque sunset, Virginia Tech roared onto the pitch for its regular season opener, greeted by a packed house at Thompson Field.

Even after an intense thunderstorm pushed the match from an hour later from the original start time, supporters poured in to fill the bleachers, providing a raucous environment for the home opener.

“(They) just added so much excitement, intensity,” forward Tori Powell said of the fans after the Hokies’ 3-0 win over Liberty on Thursday night. “I think that this was the most intense game that we’ve had yet which is so fun, and really it just riles us up and we love it.”

Tech fed off the crowd energy immediately, and in the 19^th minute, Powell threaded the needle to forward Nicole Kozlova in front of the net, and Kozlova converted easily to give the Hokies an early 1-0 edge.

“We had a lot of energy at the start, I was hoping we’d channel that energy and not make it more than it was with our opening game but they were excited to play tonight and they showed it throughout the 90 minutes,” head coach Chugger Adair said.

The Hokies were the dominant force in the first half, taking the 1-0 lead into the break, when Coach Adair stressed the importance of consistency in the second half.

“The message was to try to put the game away, 1-nil up at halftime, anything can happen, a breakdown, or Liberty could do something special and tie the game so we were trying to make sure we kept ourselves in a spot where we were on top of the game, kind of put the game out of reach and take the game by the neck,” Adair continued.

His squad did exactly that.

The Hokies struck again just five minutes into the second half on a free kick by midfielder Emily Gray, whose shot was deflected off the crossbar, popped straight up in the air and landed in midfielder Emma Pelkowski’s lap, when she put it away in the back of the net to double the VT lead.

A third tally from Powell in the 61^st minute on a sequence of headers in front of the net extended the lead to a commanding 3-0 margin, and Adair soon saw the opportunity to sub in some reinforcements to finish things off.

“I was pleased tonight that we got to play kids, and get a little bit deeper into our bench, and we’ve got some kids coming off of injuries here and there so I was worried about that a little bit,” Adair said. “But I think the group pulled together well, and that’s a good start to the season — getting off on the right foot.”

Powell’s key to the Hokies’ offensive success?

“I think honestly the pressure, we came into it knowing that we were gonna press high, we were gonna shut them down as fast as we could and get out of it when we could get out of it.” Powell said.

The Hokies certainly applied consistent pressure throughout the match, totaling 17 shots, nine of which were on net, coupled with a whopping 10 corner kicks, making for a lopsided affair.

And while the Hokies filled up the stat sheet, Adair still sees room for improvement.

“I would've liked to have seen us take a few more chances, because I think we created enough opportunities,” Adair said. “Liberty saved a couple off the line, [its] keeper made a good save, things like that I think we need to maybe take to the next level to finish those chances.”

Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was the anticipation, but nonetheless, the overall impressive effort moves the Hokies to a perfect 1-0, and VT will look to replicate its initial success in the coming weeks.

“I think just putting together what we’ve been working on this whole preseason, we’ve been so excited for it to start, we’ve been coming together and we’re just excited to keep going from here," Powell said.