No. 17 Virginia Tech opens season at College of Charleston Tournament

BLACKSBURG (Via Virginia Tech University) – The No. 17/20 Virginia Tech women’s soccer team opens its 2016 season at the College of Charleston Tournament on Aug. 19-21, at Patriots Point, in Charleston, South Carolina.

Friday marks the second straight season opener away from Blacksburg, as the Hokies open the tournament against LSU on Friday at 5 p.m. Tech then kicks against Mississippi State on Sunday at 11 a.m. Neither match will be streamed online.

Tech meets LSU for the second time in program history, as the Hokies hold a 1-0 advantage over the Lady Tigers. Friday’s match will be the second neutral-site meeting between the two squads, with Tech claiming a 1-0 victory over LSU on Sept. 5, 2010, at the ACC/SEC Challenge in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sunday will be the first-ever meeting against the Hokies and the Bulldogs.

+NCAA Women’s Soccer Commitment Announcements: August 2016

VT returns to competition following a 2015 season which saw it compile a 15-4-2 record en route to its eighth straight NCAA Tournament bid. Fifteen letterwinners return, including senior All-American Murielle Tiernan. A native of Ashburn, Virginia, Tiernan was named a Missouri Athletic Club (MAC) Hermann Trophy candidate for the second year in a row and was listed on the 2016 Coaches’ Preseason All-ACC Team for the first time in her career.

Tiernan, the program’s all-time leading scorer, paced Tech in 2015 with 31 points on a team-best 14 goals. Juniors Alani Johnson and Laila Gray also return to the 2016 lineup, as they each tallied 18 and 16 points, respectively, as sophomores last season.

LSU posted a 13-6-4 mark in 2015, as the Tigers advanced to the SEC Tournament semifinal as the No. 7 seed and qualified for its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. Picked to finish fifth in the SEC this season, the Lady Tigers are led by first-team All-SEC honoree Jorian Baucom and second-team All-SEC nominee Summer Clarke. Baucom had a team-best 15 goals as a sophomore last year.

The Bulldogs posted a 5-10-3 mark in 2015, finishing a point shy of qualifying for the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2004. Last season, MSU earned its first win over a ranked opponent in more than four years, its first conference win in more than three seasons and its first win in program history against Arkansas on the road. The Bulldogs enter 2016 only losing four players from last year’s squad.