The life of ACC women’s programs outside of the traditional powers represent the true quality of the conference.

Virginia Tech’s non-conference record through the first few weeks of 2012 (8-0-0) bangs home that point, as the Hokies are unblemished through their first eight games of the season.

They’ve scored 17 goals and conceded just 2 along the way – but it hasn’t come easy.

“Our record is good,” head coach Chugger Adair told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “We’ve battled through a lot of injuries. We’ve had four or five things going on with different players as far as starters…one of the keys for us has been playing games and getting different lineups and different kids experience and that’s been good for us so far.

Opponents on the way haven’t been super easy either – at the end of August, Tech took a trip to Nebraska to compete in the Husker Classic against Nebraska and Iowa State.

Shannon Mayrose

The combination of travel and two tough competitors certainly worried Adair, but the response of his team was great, as the Hokies picked up a 3-2 win over the Huskers and defeated Iowa State 1-0 the following Sunday.

“I was concerned about that trip for sure and how our girls would handle it,” he said. “I think we handled it very well and that Friday night was the only game where we’ve been behind, we were able to come back in the second half.”

Keeping that success and mentality of the past few season is Adair’s focus. In his second season as head coach of the Hokies, Adair is fresh off a run to the Sweet 16 of last year’s tournament.

That was despite only finishing eighth in the ACC regular season – indicative of the conference’s quality, as Virginia Tech amassed a very solid 14-8-1 record overall.

Early success in this season has come despite missing some key players with injuries. Jazmine Reeves, a starting forward on last year’s team has been coming off the bench to add a spark to the attack. But the healthy players have stepped up, including experienced defenders Kelsey Mitchell and Amanda Gerhard providing stability at the back, and Shannon Mayrose and Ashley Manning leading the attacking line.

Adair isn’t getting carried away with the team’s undefeated record, as the team begins ACC play on Sunday by hosting NC State at home. He knows that things have to get better.

“We’ve been strong there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “But now everything ramps up, we’ve got to take care of business at home, defend well as a group, I think we’ve been a little bit fortunate because we may have made mistakes here and there with some of the games, teams probably haven’t capitalized on us.

“The ACC teams are going to capitalize on our mistakes, so we’ve got to be a little bit tighter defensively, as well as take our chances going forward, we’ve not going to get those 25-30 shots a game like we’ve been getting. We’re going to need to take our chances, as they’re going to be few and far between.”

From there, it won’t get any easier, with a trip to North Carolina as the ACC gauntlet continues. There’s no questioning the Hokies have the talent, but now it’s about proving themselves in conference after dominating teams outside the ACC.

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