Between 2016 and 2019, head coach Tim Santoro and the NC State women’s soccer team were one of just 12 teams in the country to make three NCAA Sweet 16 appearances; after having to opt out of the 2020 fall season, the Wolfpack is ready to get back to the tournament in 2021.

Although the Wolfpack was able to play in the spring, much of the focus during those games was on preparation for the fall. Now it’s time for that preparation to be put into action.

“We are extremely excited, especially with how fall went and we tried our best in spring, but that didn’t work out,” said junior midfielder Toni Starova. “We’re just so excited to have this opportunity right away after spring, after we were competing. We’re just so excited that we have the opportunity to compete again. I can feel it in the team, how much excitement there is. That’s all we really want. To play competitive games and show what this team is.”

With the team already having to miss one season due to COVID-19, the players and staff have done everything they can to make sure this season happens as planned. According to Santoro, the players and staff are 100% vaccinated.

“I think the team as a whole just realized we have got to be all in together and there wasn’t really any push back,” Santoro said. “We didn’t have to prod people. … We did not want what happened last year to happen this year. I commend everyone for the buy in and I think that just shows how strong the team unit is right now.”

The Pack starts its regular season on Thursday, Aug. 19 with a trip to No. 11 Georgetown, but the young team, which includes 15 freshman, has already cut its teeth with some tough exhibition games. 

After starting the preseason with a 3-1 win over Coastal Carolina, the Wolfpack went on the road to take on No. 12 West Virginia, drawing 1-1.

“I knew we were opening up with top-10 Georgetown, and some people have them higher than that,” Santoro said. “I had to get a game like that the week before, just so the new kids could see what the level is going to be like, and it really served its purpose. They probably exceeded my expectations in the game in terms not the result as much as just how they played. They really, really were comfortable in the game. And like I said, we probably should have won the game. So that was encouraging.” 

The games against West Virginia and Georgetown are far from the Pack’s only games against top opponents. This season, the Wolfpack is slated to face eight teams that are ranked currently (including the West Virginia Exhibition), six of which rank inside the top 12. 

The exhibition games allowed a lot of the Pack’s young players to get their first taste of the college game, but one freshman, forward Annika Wohner, really stood out on the scoresheet. Wohner, one of two freshman joining the team from Germany, scored three of the Pack’s four goals in the exhibition games. 

“She brings a lot of experience from Bayern Munich, playing in Germany,” Santoro said. “We knew she was talented, you just never know what the adjustment will be like. But she’s hit the ground running. She’s ready to go. She’s everything that we thought she was going to be.”

Wohner is one of four international players in the large freshman group, something that should benefit the team as Santoro said the international players often enter college with experience playing away from home at a high level and doing it everyday.

“They’re used to this, the lifestyle of not being near parents and family and going to a different school, meeting new people,” Santoro said. “They’ve all been good players at good clubs, so, the level, it’s an adjustment, but it’s not too much for them. It’s just something different… The biggest difference is just culture, language, food, lifestyle, you know, the classes are a little different in terms of some of the teaching methods, but from the soccer standpoint, they’ve done this type of everyday life before.”

With the maturity and experience that the international players add to the young group, the overall quality of the players makes it easy for them to get acclimated to the college environment quickly. 

“Anytime you have talent, that makes the buy-in a lot easier,” Santoro said. “They know they’re not just new players, they know there’s good players here. Similar to what we went through in 2016, when [Tziarra King and Ricci Walkling] and that group arrived. When you get a big young group, and they can play, it makes that adjustment period pretty easy.”

Another thing that has made the transition for the young players easy is the established culture within the program. 

“We were taught by the players that were welcoming us here to basically just be open to other players, showing them what our standards are, what they do here and how we interact with each other with respect,” Starova said. “Honestly, all the freshmen are such amazing people, they just picked up what we are all about here and it hasn’t been that hard.”

While young players make up the bulk of the roster, the Wolfpack has experience in some very crucial areas. The Pack’s center back duo of junior Jenna Butler and redshirt junior Lulu Guttenberger haven’t just been playing in college for awhile, they’ve been playing together for multiple seasons.

Behind the pair of veteran center backs is a freshman goalkeeper, but she is far from lacking in experience. Maria Echezarreta was one of three from the current freshman group that was able to get minutes in the spring, and this semester will be her fourth at NC State. Echezarreta was very solid in the spring, taking the starting spot right away and she, alongside Guttenberger and Butler, gives the Wolfpack a strong defense base to build around.

In addition to the strong triangle at the back, the Wolfpack has a few other experienced players who help make up the core of the team like sophomore forward Jameese Joseph, sophomore forward Leyah Hall-Robinson and Starova, just to name a few.

One player who really improved her game during the missed season and spring last year was sophomore midfielder Jaiden Thomas.

“The COVID year was disappointing not to play, but I’ve told everyone, I don’t know if anyone gained from it as much as we did,” Santoro said. “We trained for four or five days a week in the fall. Normal spring, seven, eight games, whatever it was. So we still got a lot of development in and [Thomas] knew that Riccci was gone and Paige [Griffiths] was gone. We’ve graduated some people to midfield, she knew there was an opportunity to take over, kind of like she started at the end of her freshman year in [2019]. She’s really taking some big steps and will be an important player for us.”

With an exciting group of newcomers and a determined veteran core, this year should be a solid one for the Wolfpack as it works through a tough schedule and attempts to return to its place as a perennial tournament team, and a team no one wants to face in a win-or-go-home game.