Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 13 No. 2 | October 2020

inside.hokiesports.com 27 O ver the course of the previous 351 days leading into the season opener for the Virginia Tech women’s soccer team, Emily Gray had developed a gameday ritual. This ritual required going to the grocery story, buying a large bag of Skittles, and then eating them with teammates Holly Rose Weber and Sydney Ash. For these injured standouts, gamedays consisted of following the rainbow and tasting the rainbow—while mixing in a little cheering for their teammates in the process. Gray, though, has been asked to do much more than eat Skittles and cheer on her teammates this season. Medically cleared and fully recovered from last fall’s torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee, Gray stands as the top scoring threat for a Tech team that lost last year’s leading scorer, Nicole Kozlova—who left the squad to play for the Ukrainian National Team—and one that got off to a slow start against a brutal schedule that featured six ranked opponents to open the 2020 campaign. But after nearly a year away from competition, Gray welcomed any challenge. It showed, too, in the season opener when she scored on a penalty kick in Charlottesville against a Virginia team ranked No. 11 as of this writing. Her message: I’m back. “While it was ultimately a consolation goal in the game itself, it was still such a great moment for me, if I’m being honest,” Gray said. “Last year when I tore my ACL, I would have told you that I never wanted to go back to that field ever again, but as I matured through the process and a few weeks before the season we realized we’d be playing there, I was so pumped and excited to make things right. “I was super nervous leading up to the game without a doubt. Not only was it at Virginia where it had happened, but it was also my very first game back. There were a lot of emotions, but scoring a goal, albeit a PK [penalty kick], was a great feeling that allowed me to move past it in a way.” Even in a loss, the goal against Virginia prompted an overwhelming feeling of euphoria, not just because she scored in the venue where she originally suffered the injury, but also because she returned to her team in which she has been devoted to since committing to Tech as a freshman in high school. The Sewell, New Jersey native caught the eyes of Tech’s coaching staff at a showcase in her home state as a 14-year-old, and she and her family took an unofficial visit to Tech that April. The Hokie stone buildings, the dogwoods and daffodils in full bloom, and the friendliness of the people overwhelmed her. She committed two months later. “I got to Virginia Tech and I was like, ‘This is where I want to be,’” she said. “I just got this feeling that this was going to be home.” She certainly adapted to her surroundings quickly when she arrived in Blacksburg. She started her first collegiate game, and she has started every game in which she has played since then. Unfortunately, the horrific injury last year derailed her sophomore season.. Playing well for the Hokies at the time—she led the team with three game-winning goals—she and her teammates traveled to Charlottesville for an ACC match against the Cavaliers. Minutes into the match, Gray found herself in a battle for the ball with former club teammate Phoebe McClernon, and she heard the dreaded “pop.” She knew immediately that she was about to embark on a nine-month vacation from soccer. The injury served as a double whammy, too, as it knocked her out of U20 national team tryouts and ultimately out of the U.S. team’s qualifiers in January and February. Gray had been among a pool of players being considered for the U.S. team slated to participate in this summer’s U20 World Cup in Costa Rica and Panama, though the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in that event’s cancelation. “My goal was to have a really good season and show why I should be part of the rosters,” Gray said. “In doing so, the ACC games were going to be incredibly important because most of my competition played in the ACC or Pac-12. I wanted to prove that I was of the same level or better … That was disappointing because I was very motivated coming into that UVA game specifically and going into ACC play. We had a really good team, and I wanted to make a run at the tournament again, especially for our seniors. “I remember being on the field when I tore it, screaming in pain, knowing that I’m going to be out for nine months. No World Cup. Everything that I had been working for last summer to have a really good season—and I was having a really good season—just came crashing down.” You think this is what your journey is going to be like [a straight line], but it’s absolutely nothing like that,” she said. “It’s always a jumbled mess, and you have to overcome so many things to get where you want to be. I think that it’s just a part of my story that I’ll look back on when my career is over and think, ‘Dang, you got through that. That’s pretty cool.’ Emily Gray on returning to the pitch following a torn ACL ” “ women’s soccer spotlight emily gray Continued on page 28