Last year, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team made the NCAA Tournament as a nine-seed and had a first-round matchup with Oregon. Megan Duffy and her team were bounced by the Ducks, but there ended up being a lot of roster turnover with the Transfer Portal.
Carys Baker (Louisville) and Mackenzie Nelson (Clemson) left and landed back in the ACC, while Duffy added some players through the portal, highlighted by a pair of Tennessee transfers in Alyssa Latham and Lauren Hurst. Carleigh Wnezel is back for her final season with Virginia Tech, along with some other key contributors from last season in the backcourt, Lelia Wells and Samyha Suffren. Despite some roster turnover, Duffy is looking to build on the 2025-26 season.
“We made a big step with our confidence and our ability to lay a great foundation for future years,” Duffy said at ACC Media Days. “I think this team can be even better.”
Duffy mentioned that, in losing Nelson, it'll be point guard by committee this season, with Wenzel, Wells, Suffren, and Katie Sears all likely to see some time. The season begins at home on Nov. 2 against North Carolina Central in Cassell Coliseum.
Virginia Tech needs to get its run game going at Cal
Virginia Tech quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer threw for 434 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions against Pitt on 30-for-41 passing. As well as he played, he could have used more from his running game, which totaled just 65 yards in the entire game. If they are going to have success against California, they are going to need to get Jeffrey Overton Jr. and Marcellous Hawkins Jr. going earlier in the game.
"I think the other thing that's going to help our run game is, we were able to hit some explosive plays on Friday; that will loosen people up," Franklin said. "The ceiling starts to lower and lower with those safeties if you're not able to throw the ball over their head. Our receivers doing a good job of coming in and digging out the safeties on a consistent basis will help, or putting those defenders in conflict with RPOs.''
Virginia Tech ran the ball well in the rain at Boston College, and they'll need to do it again this weekend in Northern California against the Golden Bears if they are going to enjoy their flight back to the East Coast late Saturday night.
More Virginia Tech Hokies News
- The Hokies men's soccer team picked up a 3-1 non-conference win over Longwood on Tuesday night with goals from Dagur Traustaton in the 10th minute, Amir Ariely in the 59th minute, and Chase Vazquez in the 83rd minute. All three goals were scored on headers. At 7-3-1 overall, Virginia Tech visits No. 10 Pitt on Friday night in a pivotal ACC match.
- Virginia Tech's women's soccer team will return to the pitch at SMU on Thursday night, sitting at 6-3-3 overall and 2-2-0 in the ACC. The Hokies are coming off a loss at home to Louisville over the weekend when the Cardinals scored the winning goal in the 89th minute.
- The Hokies volleyball team is 4-9 overall and 1-3 in ACC play, with all the conference matches coming on the road. Virginia Tech will play their first two home conference matches this upcoming weekend, hosting North Carolina on Friday night and Duke on Sunday afternoon.
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