Starting new thread for ACC Women's Soccer for the 2026 season. Lots of Spring games already happening, but nobody posting scores. Some game updates happening in individual team threads though. U-19, U-20 and U-23 USWNT camp rosters have just been announced. Lots of ACC representation per usual (including ACC players that have gone pro, but not listing those here). Starting with the US U-19s, the ACC has 8 active players on the 20 player roster. 2 each for UNC, UVA and Wake Forest. They include: Pearl Cecil (Virginia) Bella Devey (UNC) Daya King (Duke) Jaida McGrew (Florida State) Riley Cross (Wake Forest) Jordyn Hardeman (Virginia) Lauren Malsom (UNC) Kylie Maxwell (Wake Forest) Then for the US U-20s we have 8 more players currently playing in the ACC, led by 3 for Stanford: Carolina Birkel (Stanford) Kate Ockene (Florida State) Aven Alvarez (UNC) Liz Boamah (Stanford) Hope Munson (UNC) Y-Lan Nguyễn (Stanford) Nyanya Touray (Florida State) Izzy Engle (Notre Dame) And finally for the U-23s, Sierra Sythe from Wake forest is the only active ACC player on the roster (only 4 college players total were named to this roster, the rest are pros).
Update: The U-19s added Wake Forest Goalkeeper Lizzie Thornton to the roster for Argentina. The US U-18 roster was announced after I posted this and includes the following current and incoming freshman. Quite a lot from the ACC (apologies if I missed any of the commits or got schools wrong) .... Brooke Bunton (SMU) Riley Kennedy (UNC) Kyndal Shuler (UVA) Gracie Milam (Notre Dame) Peyton Trayer (UNC) Sophie Wyshner (Wake Forest) Cate Cantu (Louisville) Lauren Hemann (Stanford) Ella Kral (Stanford) Mailee Hilburn (Notre Dame) Lily Jeakle (Notre Dame) Kate Kemmerley (Notre Dame) Emmy O'Donnell (Duke)
Tried to compile a comprehensive list of spring games for all ACC teams. Didn't put too much effort into it so if a team didn't post a complete schedule on their socials I just said "no info". Louisville was the only team to post scores on their social accounts. Other scores I got from what people have posted on here who saw the games. I'm sure I'm missing games in addition to scores. Feel free to say something if you know something. Spring Schedules: Boston College 3/21 vs Providence 3/28 vs Rhode Island 4/11 @ Boston Legacy 4/18 vs Stonehill 4/25 vs UMass Lowell Cal No Info Clemson 3/7 @ Georgia Southern 3/12 vs Furman 4/3 @ Georgia 4/10 vs Columbus State 4/18 vs Duke (neutral site) Duke 2/18 vs Campbell 3/21 vs Virginia (lost 2-3) 4/1 vs Wake Forest 4/9 vs Duke Men's Club Team 4/18 vs Clemson Florida State No Info Louisville 2/22 vs Bellarmine 3/6 @ Lexington FC 4/4 vs Alabama (neutral site) (won 3-1) 4/10 vs Xavier (won 3-0) 4/18 @ Tennessee Miami No Info NC State 2/14 vs UNCW 3/5 vs East Carolina 3/12 vs UNC 4/8 vs Campbell 4/17 @ UNCG Notre Dame 2/28 @ Northwestern 3/21 vs Tennessee (neutral site) 4/11 @ Wisconsin 4/26 vs Iowa SMU 2/28 vs Seminole State College 2/28 vs some team with a bird as a mascot 3/7 vs TWU 4/11 vs TCU 4/18 @ Baylor 4/25 @ Oklahoma Stanford 4/23 vs Santa Clara 4/26 vs CP (Cal Poly?) 5/1 vs St Mary's College Syracuse No Info UNC 3/12 @ NC State (won 3-1) 3/26 vs UNCW (won 2-0) 3/29 vs UVA (lost 0-1) 4/19 vs Liberty UVA 3/21 @ Duke (won 3-2) 3/29 vs UNC (won 1-0) 4/12 vs Wake Forest Wake Forest 4/1 vs Duke 4/12 @ Virgina 4/18 vs James Madison
Well yea, ..... for years I've being curious of the mascot bird. --But he might be dead by now? The left wing is showing about twice area as the right, meaning twice the force for spinning right into the ground. The tail feathers sure look like good old pincers of a lobster, and the machine gun blasting over the right wing clearly shooting down the soccer balls before the other team wins.....Wow! if other teams know what was in order, they'd shiver. but other teams would otherwise just fail without knowing.
Fall schedules are starting to get announced. The first two so far in the ACC are... NC State - 2026 Fall Schedule https://gopack.com/news/2026/4/22/womens-soccer-womens-soccer-announces-2026-schedule Of note: NC State will not face any Power 5 foes in non-conference play and will largely stay local (all non-con games in NC or VA). Wake Forest - 2026 Fall Schedule https://godeacs.com/news/2026/4/23/womens-soccer-wake-forest-womens-soccer-announces-2026-schedule Of note: In non-conference play Wake Forest will face 3 SEC opponents (LSU, @ Florida and South Carolina)), and one Big 10 opponent (Iowa).
One coach wants to make the postseason and one coach wants aesthetically pleasing record for the admin.
In my experience, "aesthetically pleasing" has nothing to do with it, it's a matter of being realistic. NC State finished 4-4-2 in the conference last year, tied for 10/11. That record in the ACC isn't too bad, though a little weak for an ACC team to get into the NCAA Tournament. But they were 1-5-2 in their non-conference schedule, which was a death knell in terms of being even close to getting into the Tournament. If they have any NCAA Tournament aspirations, their 2026 schedule looks much more realistic. With the conference schedule they're playing, they need only slightly better conference results than in 2025. It's in their non-conference record where they need to do much better. I'd say if you're NC State, this is about what you should be doing to give yourself a chance to get into the NCAA Tournament. Wake Forest is in a different position. They're competing for an NCAA Tournament seed, which calls for more in terms of your non-conference schedule.
IIRC, the NC State coach said something to the effect that he tried to play too offensively minded at the beginning of the season and they adjusted after a few games. They were a solid team by the middle of the season. They had a big home game against Duke later in the season and got a red card early and lost, 3-1. I would have liked to have seen what they could have done playing at full strength.
cpthomas, give us the data on this test case since you're the Yoda on this. How much does this 2026 approach in non-conference help SOS, RPI, NCAA if you win like 5-6 of them? Is that enough? Then what's needed in ACC? Glancing at them last year, most conference results were in bottom 6 teams and ACC portion probably not as forgiving. What did NC State do from a SOS, RPI standpoint 2016-22 when making NCAA?
I have to finish up a couple of projects, after which I'll come back to NC State and see what I think are the answers to your questions.
It's pretty much any P4 team.....strong v weak non-conference and then playing a P4 conference schedule. What gets you in? See a lot of posts on here about RPI, SOS, etc so was curious to the best remedy/target numbers to make NCAA.
Here is a detailed article on this exact question, with lots of analyses: NCAA Tournament: Predicting the Bracket, At Large Selections and Seeds.