Virginia Tech Men's Soccer Releases Their 2017 Schedule

Editor

June 28, 2017, 03:00 AM

After making an impressive run to the Elite 8 last year, the Virginia Tech Hokies' men's soccer team is looking to build on that success in 2017 and try to push to make an even deeper run in the NCAA Tournament this year. Yesterday, the Hokies released their 2017 schedule which gives Virginia Tech plenty of challenging games that should test them and give them a chance to build a resume worthy of a top 16 seed. https://twitter.com/VT_MSoccer/status/879723876523147265 Virginia Tech's 2017 schedule will include 11 games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season, four of which will come in non-conference games (ETSU, Creighton, Pacific, South Carolina). The Hokies will start the season facing three-straight teams that made the NCAA Tournament starting on the road at East Tennessee State (who VT beat in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament) followed by a huge home-opening ACC showdown against Clemson (who made the Elite 8 of last year's NCAA Tournament) followed by a trip to Omaha to face Creighton before facing Nebraska-Omaha two days later in Omaha in their first game against a team that didn't make the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The Hokies will be tested right from the start with that Clemson game being a surprisingly early ACC showdown that will receive lots of attention from across the conference. The toughest stretch comes in late September and early October as the Hokies will host Notre Dame and Longwood followed by trips to Boston College and South Carolina with a home game against Louisville and road game at Wake Forest after that. This six-game stretch will be quite the test for the Hokies with Longwood being the only team that didn't make last year's NCAA Tournament in that stretch. The game against Wake Forest stands out in particular due to how this is a rematch of last year's Elite 8 game where the Demon Deacons eliminated VT, making this the Hokies' chance to get revenge. The Hokies will face rival Virginia at home on September 15th with their home finale coming against North Carolina and their regular season finale coming at Pittsburgh, one of the 7 teams on their schedule that didn't make last year's NCAA Tournament. The ACC Tournament is also scheduled to start November 1st should the Hokies make it as they did last year. The Hokies will be returning many of their key pieces for this year's team including star forward Marcelo Acuna and talented goalkeeper Ben Lundgaard with VT only losing 4 players who started 8 or more games though they did lost 2 starting defenders who started over 20 games. However, VT has a good mix of proven veterans and talented young players that should make VT quite dangerous in 2017 for Mike Brizendine. The Hokies have a tough schedule that will definitely test them thoroughly and gives them a chance to establish themselves among some of the top ACC schools. 2017 Virginia Tech Men's Soccer Schedule (* made 2016 NCAA Tournament)