Virginia Tech men’s soccer starting season out west | Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG — The Virginia Tech men’s soccer team will open the season out west with two stern tests.

The Hokies will be in Phoenix on Thursday night to take on fellow 2021 NCAA tournament participant Grand Canyon in the season opener. Virginia Tech and Grand Canyon are first and second, respectively, in the “also receiving votes” category of the national preseason coaches Top 25 poll.

Virginia Tech will then head to Los Angeles for a Sunday game at No. 23 UCLA.

“This week will tell us a lot,” coach Mike Brizendine said before practice this week.

A preseason win at No. 2 Georgetown has the team confident entering the early tests.

“We’re hitting our form now, especially after the win against Georgetown,” forward Conor Pugh said. “We’re ready. We’re all excited.”

Virginia Tech returns eight starters from a team that went 11-5-4 overall and 3-4-1 in ACC play last fall. The Hokies made the NCAAs for the sixth straight year before bowing out with a second-round loss at West Virginia on penalty kicks.

“I definitely think that we’ll go farther than last year in the tournament,” goalkeeper Ben Martino said.

Brizendine said Tech has the talent to make it back to the NCAAs.

But the Hokies must replace Jacob Labovitz, who scored a team-high nine goals last year. Labovitz, who made the All-ACC first team as a fifth-year senior, is now playing professionally for Greenville in the United Soccer League.

“One area of concern for me is scoring goals,” Brizendine said. “If we score goals, we will be a very tough team to play against — a very tough team. The question is, can we get better on that?”

Brizendine figures scoring will be more by committee this year.

“A lot of guys have to step up offensively,” Martino said.

The Hokies must also replace defender Sivert Haugli, who was chosen by Portland in the third round of the Major League Soccer draft after starting for Tech the past four seasons. He is now playing for Portland’s reserve squad in the MLS NEXT Pro league.

“Losing two of our best players was really hard,” midfielder Mayola Kinyua said.

But despite the loss of Haugli, the Hokies are not fretting about the defense.

“I … expect us to have more shutouts this year,” said Brizendine, whose team had five shutouts last year.

Tech is changing formations this year, with Brizendine opting to employ five defenders instead of four.

“Our strongest suit is going to be the defense. We really want to focus on clean sheets and zero goals so that if we are lacking that goal-scoring force, we’re winning games like 1-0 or 2-1 in overtime,” Martino said.

Martino had 64 saves as a freshman last year.

“Getting a good freshman … season under my belt was really big for my confidence,” Martino said. “I can kind of go out and just do my own thing and not really have any nerves.

“I want to step into a new leadership role that I couldn’t really as a freshman.”

Defender Kyle McDowell, a native of England who led the team with eight assists last year, is also back.

Brizendine expects Pugh to lead the team in scoring this year.

Pugh ranked second on the Hokies with six goals last year. It was his first year on the team after transferring from Coastal Carolina.

“I got to see how … competitive the conference is, so I’m hoping to build off that and get more [goals] this year,” he said.

Pugh, a native of Ireland, is one of nine international players on this year’s squad.

“It’s good fun, having different backgrounds all together,” he said.

Pugh will split time at forward with newcomer Ricki Vidal, a graduate student who attended college in his native Spain.

Brizendine considers the midfield to be the team’s strong suit. Tech hopes to wear foes down by possessing the ball.

“We’ve got a lot of talented midfielders. We can hold the ball,” Brizendine said. “I expect us to have a fair share of the ball every time we kick off.”

Kinyua, who made the All-ACC third team last year, is among the returning midfielders. He grew up in Kenya before moving to the United States when he was in high school to play for Montverde Academy in Florida.

He had one assist last year before missing the final five games with a torn quadricep muscle.

“I’m not really a stats kind of player,” he said.

Midfielder Danny Flores, who made the ACC all-freshman team last year, is also back. He had one goal and three assists last fall.

Freshmen of note include defender Grant Howard and Haugli’s brother, Oskar.

The Hokies have been picked fifth in the six-team Coastal Division in the ACC’s preseason coaches poll. The four Coastal teams picked ahead of Tech are all nationally ranked — Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Duke.

Tech’s rigorous ACC schedule includes a Sept. 16 home game against No. 15 Wake Forest; an Oct. 7 visit to No. 24 UNC; an Oct. 14 home game against No. 7 Pitt; an Oct. 21 game at No. 4 Notre Dame; and an Oct. 28 home game with No. 12 Duke.