Virginia Tech News: Mixed results on the court and on the pitch

It was a busy weekend for Virginia Tech sports teams and the countdown to the season-opener for the football team is down to five days.

In the latest edition of Virginia Tech News, both soccer teams were in action over the weekend and the volleyball team had a perfect weekend to begin their season.

Virginia Tech volleyball has an impressive start to the season

The Hokies volleyball team hosted the Hokie Invitational over the weekend to kick off the season and they won all three games in impressive fashion.

On Friday, they beat Morgan State 3-0, then took down Quinnipiac University by the same score. Saturday, they swept Furman, 3-0, at Cassell Coliseum.

https://twitter.com/HokiesVB/status/1695858722155717108

Sydney Petersen was named MVP, while Leandra Mangual Duran and Hailey Pearce were named to the All-Tournament team. It was an impressive performance to open the season for Virginia Tech, who got 89 assists in the three matches from sophomore Hanna Borer, including 36 in the win for Furman.

Tech, which finished 11-18 in 2022, will head to the University of Toledo next weekend to participate in the Toledo Challenge with matches against Memphis, Toledo, and Youngstown State.

Women’s soccer suffers first setback on the road

After beginning the season with three straight clean sheets in wins over Butler and James Madison and a tie with Indiana, the Hokies suffered their first setback of the season Sunday in Washington D.C. with a 1-0 loss to 20th-ranked Georgetown.

The Hoyas scored the game’s lone goal in the 49th minute when Maja Larder scored the first goal of the season against Hokies (3-1-1) keeper Alia Skinner, who made five saves in the match. Virginia Tech had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds, but Samantha DeGuzman’s third shot of the match on target was stopped.

Men’s soccer drops second match in a row

Things went from bad to worse for the Virginia Tech men’s soccer team Sunday in the second game of the season. Thursday, they dropped their opener, 4-1, to UCLA, then Sunday, after opening the scoring against Duquesne University, they allowed five unanswered tallies in a 5-1 setback.

Ethan Ballek scored the Hokies only goal for the second consecutive game for a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute, but it was all Dukes after that.

Both soccer teams return to the pitch at home Thursday night with a doubleheader. The Tech women kick things off at 5 p.m. against Old Dominion, while the men will play Loyola of Maryland at 7:30 p.m.

Football opener is just five days away

Speaking of Old Dominion, the Monarchs football team will be in Blacksburg next weekend for the season-opener on Saturday night at Lane Stadium at 8 p.m.