Wake Forest Worries Tech

These two teams played each other in the Fall tournament at Clemson.  During that game the Hokies played well and the Wake goalie showed his talent, but Tech came out well on top.  This spring game was very different.  Tech came out pretty flat and wake capitalized early.  At the end of the first quarter it was 2-1 Wake and at the half it was 5-4 Wake.  Then after being getting a moment at halftime to regroup and get fired up, the Hokies came out swinging.  Wake never gave up a large lead, but the Hokies remained in the lead the rest of the game.  Both teams goalies' played well making many clutch saves, but the fire power of Virginia Tech was too much in the end.  The final score was 10-8.  Wake falls to 3-1 in the division and Tech moves to 1-0 (6-2 overall).  The Hokies have Easter weekend off, but the next weekend they host Pitt, Clemson, and South Carolina for Friday, Saturday and Sunday home games.  Check back in for recaps of the Hokies last three home games.

Florida State Battle

I thought the game against Tennessee was good, but the VT vs. FSU game was a battle.  Lead changes back and forth in the first half lead to a tie game at the half, 6-6.  Then Florida State really turned it on in the third quarter scoring six more goals to the Hokies two to lead 12-8.  Early in the fourth quarter the Seminoles scored another to get the largest lead of the game.  Then the Hokies started fighting back scoring five to make it a one goal game, 14-13.  With less than one minute left David Stanton shot hard and the ball trickled passed the goalies legs, unfortunately for the Hokies, it didn't role passed the goal line too.  As the sidelines erupt thinking it had gone in, they slowly realized that it didn't count and were still down by one.  The final whistle blew and Tech suffered another close, one goal loss.  The difference between losing by one to Florida State and losing by one to Florida is that against FSU the Hokies actually played well.  Against Florida, Tech played a very sloppy second half and had to face the consequences.  Virginia Tech is now 5-2, with the last four games being decided by one goal.  They play Wake Forest at home on Wednesday and then have Easter weekend off.  Check back in for the recap of their first division game.

Vols Fall

Tennessee has been overlooked, they lost to Lindenwood by just one earlier this season and now suffer another close game loss.  This match up was expected to be a good one and it delivered.  This was a battle; a very physical, gritty game.  There wasn't ever a large lead because there just weren't many goals scored.  At halftime the Hokies were up just 3-1.  In the fourth quarter the Vols came back and tied it up twice.  As the fourth quarter came to an end the scoreboard read 8-8.  Virginia Tech midfielder Steve Smith won the face off in overtime and just 12 seconds later the Virginia Tech sidelines stormed the field.  The Hokie defense played great all game, shutting down the Vols extra man offense most of the night.  C.J. Babb had a lot of ground balls and good stripping checks.  The story of the game, though, has to be back up goalie Ryan Alfieri stepping up huge in the absence of Kevin Hia.  Alfieri had many clutch saves and on every clear his passes were dead on.  Tomorrow is the biggest test so far for the Hokies, Florida State.

Florida and Georgia

Over the weekend the Hokies traveled to Athens, Georgia to play two games.  On Saturday was Florida and Sunday was Georgia.  Saturday's game was was the tale of two halves.  The Gators were the first to score but Tech answered quickly and gained a four goal lead.  Florida scored three quick ones right before half time to make it 10-8 with the Hokies still in the lead.  After halftime the momentum had changed and Tech just ran out of gas.  Florida was clearly better conditioned.  Simply put, Virginia Tech didn't play a full 60 minutes and Florida did.  The final score was 14-13 Florida.

Then on Sunday, Tech looked flat.  Maybe it was the rain, the travel, or the disappointing loss the day before.  No matter what, there is no excuse for how they played.  There were good plays, don't get me wrong, Tech did have some pretty goals, but everyone had a lot they could improve on.  Again, Tech failed to show up in the second half and let Georgia right back in the game after having a pretty good lead early on.  Georgia tied it up with a couple minutes left.  The Hokies had two penalties at the end of the game, the second coming as an early release of the first making the Hokies play man down the last minute and a half of regulation.  The man down squad stepped up big with C.J. Babb making a clutch interception in the final seconds to force overtime.  A minute or so into overtime the ball was fed to Kevin Hayden on the crease who dumped it in for the win.  Virginia Tech is now 4-1 and faces two tough opponents, Florida State and Tennessee, next weekend in Knoxville.

Marquette comes and goes

On Thursday the Hokies had their first home game of the season.  Marquette is on spring break and stopped in Blacksburg after visiting East Carolina earlier in the week.  Virginia Tech came out strong and gained a four goal lead within a few minutes.  After the resulting time out taken by Marquette things started to slow down.  The lead was 9-3 at half time.  The refs were calling it very tight for both teams.  If you checked hard you got called, no matter where you hit.  There were some very pretty goals, but the stand out player in my opinion was Steve Smith, the face off man for Virginia Tech.  He won the first four or five face offs giving the Hokies a constant stream of possession.  It's hard to retaliate if you're Marquette when you can't get the ball in your offensive zone.  Without him Marquette could have answered back early and not let Tech get some momentum.  Check back in tomorrow to see how Tech fares against their toughest opponent yet, the Florida Gators.