With about a week left before the season begins, it seemed timely to begin the 2022 discussion for the Blue Devils. Coach Church has some new tools this year — a solid freshman class (Lynch, E. Piper, Lageyre, Evans, Rader, and Duffy) and the arrival from Georgetown of J. Royson. We have a solid group of new captains in Ruthie Jones, Sophie Jones, and Emmy Duerr. And two of last year’s seniors also return for a grad year — Pluck and D. Graham. Sadly, we lose Boade, Nabet, and Cosme to the NWSL, McGuire to Ole Miss, Simmons, and Stam. According to Chris Henderson, we will soon begin preparing the second toughest total schedule in the NCAA and the third hardest out of conference schedule in the NCAA. At the start of the season, as always, the question for this squad will be how well they click adding the new pieces to what we return from last year. And like a few in the ACC, we’ll be keenly focused on who we lose to the U20 World Cup and how we play without them and can integrate them upon their return. Looking forward to some good discussions this year from friends and foes — if nothing else, excited to see this team back on the field. Go Duke!
Was uber excited to see you started a Duke thread!! Brought me back to wanting to comment on bigsoccer! Thank you On paper, I really love the look of this team! They could possibly be two deep at every position. Losing the super seniors from last year (and their great leadership) stings, but I think Church did a good job filling those holes with D Jenna Royson (replacing Cosme) and Lynch & Lagyere (replacing Nabet). Boade was surprisingly epic last year, and her role will be harder to replace. Kat Rader is a highly ranked recruit, but not sure she can deliver the goals/assists Boade gave us. It might need to be a group effort from (Rader, Pluck, D. Graham and Migli) to replace Tess’ contributions. But my sense is, this team should be a championship weekend team. My starters: GK: R Jones CB: J Royson LCB: K Groff RCB: E Royson RWB: D Graham LWB: O Migli CM: S Jones AM: C Lagyere LF: M Pluck F: M Cooper RF: K Rader major subs: D: B Bruster (I’m assuming she’s recovered by now) D: N Chico D: E Piper M: D Lynch M: M Graham F: G Watkins F: E Duerr Now, the schedule is BRUTAL! And most likely we won’t have Cooper (and possibly Lagyere) for the first 4-5 games of the season due to Under20 WWC. (Selfishly hoping Lagyere isn’t on that roster….Cooper is a lock). The duo will surely miss the ECU, UNCG, @Tenn, and Charlotte games. But I think the final of the under 20 wwc is aug 29, so it’s very possible the duo can make it back for the meat of the ooc schedule and play sept 1 against ucla! (Hopefully) I expect that UNC and Duke will switch spots with UVA and FSU this year, for the top two spots. (UVA loses bigtime contributors and FSU loses A LOT - Madril, Zhao, Carle, Howell, Pavlisko, Zipay and Lynch, plus HC Krikorian. I expect the standings to be somewhat like this 1 UNC 2 Duke 3 Virginia 4 Clemson/FSU 6 NC State 7 Notre Dame 8 Pitt 9 Wake Forest 10 VTech 11 Boston College 12 Louisville 13 Miami 14 Cuse with this schedule, I’m not expecting a 1 loss/1 tie type season. I’d expect 2, maybe 3 losses, and a couple ties. But, maybe they’ll be incredible and not lose at all. We’ll see. I’m excited for this season I expect Cooper to have an ACC Off player of the year type year. Could be a Mac Herman semi finalist. Sophie Jones should be ACC MPOY now that Howell has finally left college. And my initial thinking is Lagyere should be ACC Freshman of the Year! Get it done ladies! GO DUKE
Virginia didn't lose too much off season. There are ready made replacements for Ivory, Torres and Ordonez. The only hole is from Sydney Zandi' graduation. UVa is bringing back Becca Jarrett, Alexa Spanstraa and Claire Constant for their COVID fifth year. The bigger holes will be created by international play this year as Constant, Samir Guidry and Laney Rouse could all see action. Constant is on Haiti's full team and they have a 10-team round robin qualification round this fall. But lots of teams are facing similar absences.
I think they’ll(Virginia) be just fine up front with Hopkins, Jarrett, and Spaanstra. But who replaces Torres and Zandi in the middle?! Cagle and Flammia were only ranked #30 and #26 incoming recruits. And I think it would be a big big task to ask those two (or Baylors transfer Japic) to replace Torres/Zandi’s contributions. But, maybe they’ll outperform their rankings and really surprise (as this has happened before, eg. an unranked Delaney Graham) Virginia is solid. They always will be. They might surprise me and get top spot again in the ACC this season, but I still think they are just a tad below UNC and Duke this year. Just my opinion
Alexis Theoret, presumably, is gonna replace Torres in the center. She got a lot of time last year and she's going to be just fine. And she's a much better dead ball striker than Torres, which should be scary because Hopkins is better in the air than Ordonez. Zandi is going to be harder to replace. But such is the DNA of collegiate sports. Everyone is leaving soon.
Who replaces Boade or Cosme? Proven players who were good enough to be pros? Love your enthusiastic support, but I think your glasses are a little to Blue. Both teams will be fine, injuries notwithstanding.
I am thinking that Jenna Royson (Gtown transfer) will replace Cosme. That should be a like for like replacement. I’m not sure who replaces Boade. This one is much harder to do. I’m thinking (maybe overenthusiastically) that Carina Lagyere is gonna be a stud freshmen, kind of the way Racioppi was in ‘15. If she is, her production will make up for the loss of Boade
Looks like we’ll be without Cooper and Lagyere for the first part of the season. But other ACC schools will suffer the same missing of talent. Our squad is set for the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup!Meet the 21 players named to the 🇺🇸 roster for the #U20WWC in Costa Rica!— U.S. Soccer YNT (@USYNT) July 25, 2022
Maybe for another thread but these games are over by Labor Day. Some of these girls won't miss a conference game right? Barring injury or something. Couldn't this tournament actually help some of these players for their college seasons?
None of the Under-20 girls should miss a conference game! If they make the final, that should be on Aug 28. Depending on how tired some are, Cooper/Lageyre could potentially be back for the Sept 1 clash with UCLA! Then they still play @ TCU and UNC in non conf games
Across the ACC, it looks like FSU, UVA, UNC and Duke will lose two players each. ND will lose one. While none will miss ACC conference matches, the big question will be potential for injury (shouldn’t be any different than a NCAA season) and reintegration upon return. And no one wants a RPI hit early in the season due to some unfortunate losses. Will be interested in the pov of @Val1, but losing two starting defenders seems rougher for the pre-conference matches than losing a midfielder and forward (UNC and Duke) or a keeper and defender (FSU). Agree with @Eddie K - putting aside reintegration, it’s probably a net positive for the players so long as they get more challenging matches than they seemed to have gotten in Concacaf — which they should get with the Netherlands and Japan.
Pre-season rankings are out. And while it’s nice to get such a solid nod from the coaches, it’s more of a target on your back than anything else. All that being said, the ACC is looking traditionally strong with six in the top 25 and four in the top 10. The preseason college rankings for men’s and women’s soccer in all divisions of NCAA and junior college competition have been released. Read more: https://t.co/dBcBND3XaD pic.twitter.com/CJtU9izG6b— United Soccer Coaches (@UnitedCoaches) August 2, 2022
It’s great to see them so highly respected in this pre-season poll. I think we’re def top 4, 5, but #2 might be slightly high. I def think FSU is wayyyyyy overanked! I get it, these polls always rank the def champ at 1. But I’d be shocked if they end up in the top 10 by years end. To me, UNC and Penn St are too low. With the look at their rosters, they’re the top 2 imo
I think this list is only for the US-U20 squad? The ACC will actually be missing quite a number of players during the U-20 World Cup this year when you factor in players represented on other national teams. For instance, the Canadian national team features players from FSU, Wake Forest, Pitt, Syracuse, Boston College, etc. as well.
Even though a lot of ACC teams are losing 1, or 2 players (USNT or Internationals) for the U20 World Cup, I don’t think it’s going to affect teams as much as we think, as most of these players will be back for the latter end of their teams non conf schedule (well before ACC play starts). Only thing their absence could affect is if a team’s non conf schedule is absurdly difficult!
Nothing for Syracuse to worry about then! I agree with you though. Most of the ACC teams are deep enough to survive their absence.
Duke lost its first preseason match 1-2 against Georgia on Monday evening in a fairly full Jack Turner Stadium in Athens. The schools played three 30 minute periods and both seemed to substitute fairly liberally. Duke split most of its squad into two groups, each playing about 45 minutes with a couple of exceptions. The first 45 minutes saw Duke generally controlling the possession and having a few opportunities, but Georgia was dangerous in transition and had a couple of nice chances usually the result of some sloppy passes in the middle third of the field. Presumably Duke will clean up this errant possession as the year goes on and the team gets more connected to each other. The second half(ish) of the match was frankly sloppy for both sides. Shortly into the second 45 minutes, UGA scored first on a corner. Giving up the corner might have been avoided - it was hard to see from my angle - but it related to a cross that Freshman keeper Caroline Duffy collected right on the endline. Ellie Gilbert from UGA was unmarked (or poorly marked) on the corner and had an open header to open the scoring - assisted by Abby Boyan. The second goal came from what seemed a questionable foul (and yellow card) in the box and Abby Boyan comfortably finished the PK. Duke had some solid chances that hopefully won’t be squandered during the season, including a M. Pluck strike that hit the wordwork. But in the 82nd minute, Pluck skillfully brought down a service from Julia Burnell in the box and finished it well to make the match 1-2. Duke played a 4-4-3 — which is different from the formation they typically showed last year. I do wonder whether that is personnel dependent and whether the coaches will return to their previous formations after seeing what it did and did not do for them against UGA. Even with a loss, which at this point in the season might serve as a kickstarter for UGA and a buttkicker for Duke, the coaches clearly got to see a lot from their team and learn from the match. To my eye, freshman Elle Piper showed very well at outside back. Freshman Kat Rader also got the start and did a nice job up front for the Blue Devils. You could sense that she needs to grow into the system, but nevertheless did some quality things up top in Cooper’s absence. Sophie Jones, as always, was effective in getting on the ball and quarterbacking the offense. And importantly, Baleigh Bruster made her return from injury (she has been out since last year’s UNC match). Bruster played the last 30 minutes of the match, looked strong on the ball, and most importantly made some strong tackles during her return. It will be good to have her back this season. Will be interesting to see what changes, if any, the staff makes for the last preseason match against South Carolina on Friday evening. Duke falls to Georgia in the first exhibition match of the season, 2-1. Ready to be back at home on Friday!#GoDuke— Duke Women's Soccer (@DukeWSOC) August 9, 2022
Azul, thanks for the write up. I could only follow along on Twitter updates. Was a little shocked with the loss, at first, as I don’t think UGA will even finish top 9 in the SEC. But then realized that Duke prob played EVERYBODY, and UGA most likely played their best players throughout. So really, not too concerned as most of the second half players Duke rolled out won’t play. And, Virginia also lost their exhibition today to lowly Illinois, so it happens. Nice to hear that Pluck was aggressive and dangerous, as I expect her to have an all conference like year. Also great to hear Bruster is back and getting some good mins. I think she’ll be really good in a few years! Surprised that you didn’t mention Devin Lynch. As a top 10 recruit, I was expecting her to be a strong cog in the midfield. (But I don’t know her exact position and maybe she plays the same position as Sophie, which would explain her lack of playing time) Next game in a few days vs a very strong South Carolina team! Hopefully our defense is stronger. Regarding the Under 20 WC, I saw that Cooper was named the captain! Pretty impressive for a soph. Hearing her speak, she’s oozes confidence and maturity beyond her 19 years! Go Duke
Both coaches agreed to play their strongest lineups for the first 60 minutes and let their benches play the last 30 - Duke actually subbed some of their starters back in during the last 30 minutes and they scored on the UGA reserves. Both teams were down starters due to different factors and both teams played just about their entire healthy roster. UGA’s keeper made some big saves but it was a fairly even game. Both teams looked good at times and sometimes they both looked pretty disjointed. I think Georgia will finish top 4/5 in the SEC (the league as a whole is down - it’s Arkansas/Tennessee and then a decent gap to South Carolina and then a logjam around 4-7). Duke will be fine and I expect to see them playing well into November/December. The Rader girl is one of the best natural goal scorers to come through the youth game in a few years. If she gets hot (yes, I know she’s a freshman) then Duke could make a run.
You’re pretty high on UGA! Top 4 SEC finish?! Ehhh I just can’t see it. Tenn looks like the class of the league. Ark will be good. SC has key pieces back from last year, plus a top 10 recruiting class, they’ll def be good again. I think people are sleeping on Texas A&M. Look at their roster, they have pretty solid pieces all over the field (yes they underachieved last year). Auburn will be good, LSU and Ole Miss will challenge as well. I just can’t see UGA doing better then any of those teams. “If” they do, then McAlpine is a genius
I will not be surprised if UGA does pretty well this season. They came up this spring to scrimmage UNC and I was surprised to see that they had some decent talent. Their defense was pretty strong and held the Heels first string offense scoreless for most of the first period. The last 20 minutes yielded a couple of UNC goals which I credited with simply more depth than Georgia. They have a decent freshman class coming in and will have 4 graduate students on the roster, They may find themselves in the middle third of the SEC with the talent I saw. Yes.... if they make 4th, credit McAlpine.
Georgia has talent--they had talent last year --at least five or six good players. They got better under the previous coach--but not quickly enough, and he ran out of time. The SEC is very competitive and gets more so every year. Rock fights. South Carolina is the FSU of the SEC--very hard to score on. Auburn always plays better than its talent level. Ole Miss is very well coached and good--not great, but consistently solid/good. Texas A&M has slipped the last couple of years but usually has a strong base of Texas talent. (Had a lot of injuries last year.) Vanderbilt is another well-coached team that plays attractive soccer. They fell off last year, partly because their best scorer (Hopkins) transferred out. IMO the league has become quite similar, with its depth (down to 6/7th in the conference), to the ACC, the difference being that the top SEC schools recently have been in the 6-16 national-rankings range and haven't busted into the College Cup given how good the legacy elite programs are around the country--we know who they are. It's a tough nut to crack, but I'll be surprised if we don't start seeing SEC teams in the final four fairly soon. Actually, now that I think about it: Texas A&M may have been in the College Cup maybe 8-10 years ago? Not positive. Nobody lands 5/6 elite prospects every year like the legacy programs do, so there is more flux in the SEC year-to-year, though there has been some separation lately. But look at Florida: Was the class of the league for several years and is now in complete rebuild mode.