Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 11 No. 1 | August 2018

inside.hokiesports.com 39 Proud Supporter of Virginia Tech Athletics 99 Bradley Drive Christiansburg NRV Mall 540-381-8100 www.holidayinn.com/cburgnorth Full Service Restaurant Bar & Grill Game Day Catering, Dine in or Room Service Looking for a “HOKIE HOME” away from HOME? as freshmen, as Strickler scored three goals with an assist last fall, while Kauppinen added two goals. Nico Quashie’s return should help as well, as the redshirt sophomore missed last season with an injury. Brizendine also thinks highly of another sophomore, Camron Lennon, who played in 14 games last season. Also of note, Brizendine and his staff added Arion Sobers-Assue, a graduate transfer from Florida Gulf Coast, and David Sanz, a transfer from Cincinnati. Sobers-Assue has scored 12 goals and recorded 14 assists in his career, while Sanz, a native of Spain, led the Bearcats with six goals and five assists in 2017. Hopefully, this collection of talent combines to equal Acuna’s output, or even better, exceed it. “You witnessed what Marcelo did for us the last two years,” Brizendine said. “He was a 10-goal guy, and he scored when it mattered. I’m not in despair because we have some guys … I think we’ll get more goals out of the midfield.” On the other side of the pitch, Tech needs to find a replacement for Lundgaard, who led the ACC in saves (108) and saves per game (5.40). His 312 career saves rank as the third-most in Virginia Tech history and the ninth-most in ACC history. Unfortunately, there isn’t an heir apparent. Junior Charles Filby and sophomore Hayden Kickbush have not played in a collegiate game. “The goalkeeper position is wide open,” Brizendine admitted. “If you polled our staff, you might get three different answers. That’s a critical position. We went from a first-round draft pick to who knows. One of our guys that we have high hopes for is coming back from an injury [Kickbush].” The good news, though, is that Tech’s defense figures to be significantly better in 2018 after the Hokies gave up the most goals in the ACC a year ago. Though Tamburini graduated, three top defenders return, led by sophomores Jon Ingason and Jakob Bluemler. Ingason started all 20 games as a freshman, while Bluemler started 14. Also, Tech gets the services of Will Mejia, a redshirt junior who missed much of last season. Mejia started all 22 games for the Hokies in 2016. “Defending, we’re going to be much better,” Brizendine said. “Our defending group and our depth is going to be much better. This might be some of the best depth we’ve had in a long, long time. That really hurt us last year. “We’ve added more defenders, talented guys. We should be covered back there. We were thin last year. With Will not being able to play and with some injuries, we had to move stuff around, and it was no good. It just wasn’t what we were planning for. So getting those guys back will be nice.” The Hokies won’t exactly be easing into this fall. They open the season with a rematch against Air Force at the JMU Invitational on Aug. 24—the first in a string of six games at neutral sites or on the road to start the campaign. Tech then returns home for its home opener Sept. 14 against defending ACC champion Wake Forest. So Tech needs to mesh quickly. The Hokies appear to have some pieces, but they need to come together in the manner that the past two Tech teams did. If that happens, then Tech could be in the NCAA postseason discussion for a third straight year. “If we can put the pieces together and can have a good season, there is no reason that, for the next several years, we won’t have good seasons,” Brizendine said. “We lose Rory, but our 2019 [recruiting] class is special. We can really sustain it, which is really the goal—not just to get to this point, but how do we sustain it? We’re trying hard to do that.”