The first thing that Robbie Church and the rest of the coaching staff at Duke monitored during the spring season: how hungry the national runners up were.

After coming a game shy of a national championship, the Blue Devils return 10 of 11 starters to a team that lost 2-0 against Penn State in the 2015 title game.

Church was pleased with what he saw from a very motivated group.

“I was really impressed with our springtime, especially our training,” he told TopDrawerSoccer. “I thought our kids trained really hard. We try and do a lot of teaching… We’ve got a group here that wants to be as good as they can possibly be right now, and they’ll work hard individually to get themselves better.”

Given the high rate of holdovers from last year’s squad – midfielder Kara Wilson is the only graduating player who started the final – Duke was able to do a little bit more during its spring schedule, at least from a team perspective. The individual focus remained a high priority, as assistant coaches Erwin van Bennekom and Carla Overbeck worked with the forwards and defenders respectively.

Church said that a tough exhibition slate provided an ideal test. Duke lined up against college opponents Clemson, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and NWSL side Washington Spirit.

Younger players were able to get a long look, as everyone played during the spring season. It became clear to Church, that with the talent returning, and a quality incoming class, this might be one of the best teams he’s ever had at his disposal.

“We’re going to be as deep as I’ve ever remembered having a team here at Duke,” Church said. “As a coach we would like to have two really good players in each position, so that’s there’s always competition and there’s always challenges in those positions. The majority of our positions, we’re going to have that. I see great competition in our preseason, I see healthy competition, which I think is really important.”

Early enrollees impress at North Carolina

Another impressive recruiting class is heading to Chapel Hill this fall, as the 2016 crop checked in at No. 3 in this week’s Top 25 rankings update.

Two of the freshmen graduated from high school early and competed with Carolina during the spring season. Maddie Schultz made the long trip from Washington to put in work, while local star Taylor Otto excelled during the exhibition season.

“It was fantastic having them come in,” UNC head coach Anson Dorrance told TopDrawerSoccer. “Taylor was competing for a spot on the U20 national youth team and felt if she came in here early it would help her develop and it was clear how much she’s improved.

“It was a huge benefit for Maddie to come in midyear. Her challenge is to adjust to all the demands of our level and I really felt like she did that by the end of the spring. We have a policy that the kids who are starting at the end of the spring, all those kids are starting first practice in the fall. If Maddie had come in in the fall the way she came in January, she wouldn’t have started for us this coming fall. But through her hard work all winter and spring, she won a starting spot.”

There were challenges to the spring slate for Carolina. The combination of losing players to U.S. youth camps and injuries left them thin in numbers. In the end, the Tar Heels played just twice: against NWSL side Sky Blue FC and a matchup with Duke.

Dorrance cited Otto as one of the best players against Sky Blue, while Maya Worth impressed as a left back.

“There was one area of the field they struggled to dominate us and that was actually Maya Worth’s area at left back,” he said. “Even the pros struggled to spring by her because she’s got great pace, she was very good in duels, she’s an excellent tackler, and she is very comfortable on the ball.”

Virginia looking to make tweaks

Even with a pair of friendlies left on their spring schedule this weekend, Virginia’s spring season has already been extremely valuable.

The loss of Makenzy Doniak, Brittany Ratcliffe and Emily Sonnett is a big storyline to watch in the fall (all are now on NWSL rosters), though a young squad remains in place. The current roster includes 14 rising first year players, which led to an emphasis on individual development.

“From a teaching perspective it’s been excellent,” Virginia head coach Steve Swanson told TopDrawerSoccer. “We’ve had some really quality games that have tested us and put our players in the position where we could see where we can evaluate them, where their strengths are, maybe where they can improve. I’ve been really impressed with how hard they’ve worked, and I think we’re in a really good place heading into the summer months.”

Given the breathing space between games, Virginia also uses the time to evaluate its playing style. Known for putting an emphasis on possession, the Cavaliers can take a long look and see if that can still work.

“We’ve got the environment where you can do that over the course of the spring months where you can really focus on the things that are important to your style of play, the things you want to emphasize,” Swanson said. “That may change depending on your personnel, we’ve [now] had the opportunity to look at your personnel and figure out how you want to come back in the fall, given your personnel, what it is you want to emphasize even more, what’s the tweak here and there, is it a style tweak is it a system tweak that best fits your personnel.”

Bigger role looms for Megan Connolly at Florida State

A significant graduation class saw the Seminoles lose six players to graduation and the pro ranks, leaving the team with just 15 players on the roster for spring.

Like other programs, individual development was a primary focus, as FSU seeks a fifth straight College Cup run later this year.

The departure of significant talent like Carson Pickett, Michaela Hahn, Cheyna Williams and Megan Campbell is going to open the door for younger players on the roster to step up and contribute.

One of those is a holdover from last year that did pretty well in 2015: National Freshman of the Year Megan Connolly.

“Now her responsibilities in the team grow,” Krikorian told TopDrawerSoccer. “She now has to have more impact in all of the aspects as opposed to last year just kind of coming in and being a complimentary player. She has to be a little more dominant in her role and responsibilities with the team.”

FSU’s spring slate included a lightening-shortened meeting with Orlando Pride, while the Seminoles also clashed with the Boston Breakers.

“It was good,” Krikorian said. “They pressed us, they created an awful lot of good chances and made us have to defend an awful lot throughout the course of the game. I thought it was a great experience players to play against pros.”