38 / 52
36
Inside Hokie Sports
W
hen the NCAA Selection Show began
on Nov. 7, 2016, the Virginia Tech
women’s soccer team expected to hear its name
called for the ninth straight year. The Hokies
watched, as the teams were announced. To their
dismay, they never heard the name “Virginia
Tech Hokies.” For Virginia Tech midfielder
Madi Conyers, the moment that followed
ranked as one of the toughest of her career.
“We were all sitting together in the Michael
Vick room [McConnell Auditorium] watching
it, and when we didn’t see our name pop up, the
seniors realized they were done playing soccer,”
she said. “That really hit me because they were
some of the closest people on the team to me.
Knowing how they would never play again was
crazy, and I didn’t want that to happen to us. It
definitely fueled the offseason fire.”
While last season ended in disappointment
for her, Conyers has seen her soccer career take
her from Cosby High School in Midlothian,
Virginia to competing in one of the toughest
conferences in the country. Her background
and family helped her get to Blacksburg, and
she and Virginia Tech have been a perfect fit.
Conyers’ interest in soccer began when she
was just 4 or 5 years old. That interest arose
from watching her sister, Kelsey.
“My sister was a soccer player, so I would
always go to her practices and just kick the ball
around with my dad,” Conyers said. “A girl on
my sister’s team, her dad was there and had a
soccer team. He saw me and asked if I wanted
to play. I joined his team, and it was just a little
rec soccer team.”
Her sister helped feed her love for soccer,
and their relationship fostered a high
competition level between the two.
“My sister and I would compete in pretty
much everything we did,” Conyers said. “We
would play one-on-one basketball, soccer, and
even who could do their chores the fastest. It
was always something.”
The love for competition went beyond
soccer for Conyers. While at Cosby High, she
lettered in basketball three times. The time on
the hardwood actually helped her grow in the
game she truly loved: soccer.
“It’s so different from soccer, and it helps
me see the field better now that I understand
soccer more,” she said.
While playing for Coach Brenda Tarzentski
at Cosby, Conyers earned all-region and all-
state honors three years in a row. She was also
the 2014 All-Metro Player of the Year by The
Richmond Times-Dispatch.
In addition, she played club soccer for the
U-18 Richmond Kickers Elite, a team coached
by Rob Ukrop. While with the Kickers, Conyers
helped the team win a state championship.
Andy McIntosh, one of her former coaches
on the Kickers, talked about the Conyers’ road
and how she’s developed while at Virginia Tech.
“It was very exciting to turn on the TV and
see so many Richmond players playing in the
Virginia Tech-Tennessee game [on Sept. 10],
including Madi, who is definitely one of the
most exciting and talented young players that I
have coached,” McIntosh said. “She was always
a creative and explosive player, and it is great
to see how she has developed her game to have
such success at the next level. It is fantastic to
see a player that started with the Richmond
Kickers at a very young age have such a strong
and successful college campaign.”
The decision to commit to Virginia Tech
came about after plenty of discussion. One of
the main focal points for Conyers was the idea
of staying close to the place she called home.
“My parents wanted me to go where I
wanted to go,” she said. “When I first started
looking, I narrowed it down. I didn’t want to go
to a city school. I didn’t want to go north, but
I didn’t want to go super south because I don’t
play well in the heat. I wanted to be within a
three-hour radius from home.”
One of the other factors that went into her
decision was the hope of being at a school with
a good football program. That left her with two
options in two different conferences.
She narrowed her choices to Virginia Tech
and Tennessee. Both featured solid women’s
soccer programs, but the Hokies ended up
winning out because the road trips throughout
the ACC made things easier for her family from
a travel perspective. Conyers attended two
camps at Virginia Tech before committing.
Conyers came to Blacksburg already
familiar with a couple of her teammates
from her club days. Blayne Fink and Morgan
Conklin, former Tech players, played on the
same club team as Conyers.
“Morgan and I had the same club coach, and
Blayne and I played on the same high school
team,” Conyers said. “All three of us played
on the same club team. Blayne is hilarious,
so I knew if she could fit in here, I could also
because we are so different. I felt that it would
be awesome to go where I knew people.”
Her sister was also a senior at Virginia
Tech when Conyers began her freshman
year. Kelsey Conyers played basketball
for the Hokies and helped Madi with the
transition process.
“That year was the year we got
super close,” Madi said. “It was the best
experience I could have had. It also helped
that she played basketball here, so she knew
about the difficulties of being a student-
athlete. It was also a little part of home when
my parents couldn’t be there.”
Conyers stepped right into a significant role
her freshman year. After watching her score
four goals against Buffalo and tally a goal and
an assist against East Carolina, head coach
Charles “Chugger” Adair knew he possessed a
talented freshman.
Conyers finished the season with three goals
and 11 points. The immediate impact helped
her make the All-ACC Freshman Team.
She still says that honor ranks as one of the
biggest honors of her collegiate career.
“I don’t think I was expecting it,” she said.
“Coming in, I was just going to work hard, and
hopefully I’ll get playing time. You come in,
and you don’t know your role or where you’re
going to be. It’s such a difference in terms of
speed of play.”
With the success also came a steep learning
curve, as Conyers adjusted to a different
system and tougher competition. She talked
about the most difficult part of her career.
“Coming inas a freshman, Iwas being thrown
into the outside mid-role [midfielder position],”
she said. “That role is very different than
what I had ever played. Learning all of
that at once was difficult.”
Now with her senior year
in full swing, Conyers has
started 60 games, which
stands as the most on
the team.
She talked about
the goals for
this team after
coming up
short a
year ago.
Continued
on page
3 8