Virginia Women's Soccer 2026 Season Preview

Ten years ago, when the advent of the ACC Network allowed us all to watch every women’s soccer game (and I began covering Steve Swanson’s team,) there was a clear Big Three in the ACC: UNC, Florida State, and Virginia. In the decade since, Florida State has gone on to lap the field, winning an astounding ten of the past thirteen ACC tournaments and four national championships. Even though Anson Dorrance has moved on, UNC is still UNC: national champs just two years ago.

In addition, Notre Dame has awoken, Duke is still Duke, and with demise of the PAC 12, Stanford, maybe the only team within shouting distance of Florida State this past decade, has joined the ACC. The ACC is inarguably the strongest division in women’s soccer with Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke and Florida State going one through four in the opening United Soccer Coaches poll. (For good measure, UNC is eighth.)

Virginia, for their part, has had a rough three years: the Cavaliers missed two consecutive ACC tournaments and had their 32-season streak of making the NCAA tournament broken. That same poll does have Virginia sitting 11th nationally, but with solid Louisville and Wake Forest teams nipping at their heels, there will be a dogfight for those fifth and sixth ACC tournament slots.

For the first time in decades, Virginia is struggling to stay relevant, and they’ll wage this struggle this fall after saying farewell to 6th-year Lia Godfrey, 5th-years Lanie Rouse, Kiki Maki and Laughlin Ryan, not to mention seniors Maggie Cagle, Maya Carter and Meredith McDermott. Annual turnover is written into the very DNA of collegiate sports, but that is a lot of senior leadership that has departed grounds.

Instead, Swanson will turn to last year’s superlative freshman class as maybe five sophomores figure to start this season. In addition, it seems like the rumors are true. In this season of change, Swanson has departed from his favored 4 – 3 – 3 to a more modern three-back defense, either a 3 – 5 – 2 or a 5 – 3 – 2. (Truth be told, I really cannot tell the difference: but both formations feature outside backs that do more than provide width, they actually replace the wingers of the 4 – 3 – 3.)

The Team

The back line will feature Tatum Galvin, Pearl Cecil and presumably Faith Broering, a graduate transfer from Cincinnati. Freshman Mackenzie Mize, who enrolled in the spring, figures to be in the mix. Galvin probably lead the team in minutes last year and she’s the most versatile defender, having played all four slots last season.

Cecil is the most outrageous talent on the back line, possibly the entire team. She has been a mainstay on U17, U19 and now, U20 national teams. Last season she played as an attacking midfielder, deft on the ball and with good vision. (I still remember three of her turns…) Playing at the center of defense against DC Power in an exhibition game, Cecil was spraying audacious passes out to the wings, changing the angle of attack all by herself. The problem for Swanson is that Cecil is expected to make the U20 roster for this falls women’s world cup and she will miss all of September. Defense, more than any other position, requires repetition and familiarity along the back line.

The left wingback position is set with second-year Liv Rademaker who looks to cement her left-back legacy alongside previous luminaries Courtney Peterson and Samar Guidry. In the DC Power exhibition Rademaker was playing very high up and looked very comfortable curling onto her favored right foot. She is very direct attacking the goal, and that is a quality that this Virginia team will need.

On the right, Carrie Helfrich is expected to start as she was a serviceable forward sub last year. Newcomer Kyra Koopman, a schoolgirl teammate of Rademaker back in Holland, should soon nail down the right back slot. She was very active vs the Power looking more to cross the ball vis a vis Rademaker’s driving on goal. Koopman has three year’s professional experience and she’s a welcome addition.

I am not sure what Steve Swanson is going to call his formation, but against the Power it looked very much like a 5 – 2 – 2 – 1. Senior Ella Carter and and second-year Jordyn Hardeman played a double-pivot in front to the back three. Last year Carter made me forget Alexis Theoret: she is equally calm under pressure and is a much better shooter from range than Theoret ever was while Hardeman seems like the heir apparent for next season as the defensive midfielder.

The attacking mids look like they will be Addison Halpern and Allie Ross, which is promising. Halpern arrived on grounds last year as the scholastic player of the year and one of the highest scorers in high school history. Swanson installed her as a forward and the results were ignominious. Halpern scored just four goals, but she led the team in shots, putting less than third of those shots on frame. And most of those misses weren’t even close. I think she’ll do much better as an attacking midfielder. Which could also be a better role for Ross who has had ample time to impress at both the center forward and wing slots in her three years. Ross’ greatest strength is that she moves well off the ball and dropping off the forward line may give her a new lease on life.

Which Virginia could use because Jill Flammia is crocked again. Outside of Lia Godfrey, Flammia has been the best attacking midfielder of the past four years. She is very direct at going to goal and she has a striker’s mentality. Unfortunately, her body is just not up to the rigors of Power 4 soccer. She has redshirted an entire season and missed over 1/3 of the team’s games in her other three seasons. This past weekend she was still icing and elevating her foot and getting around with her knee in a scooter. It looked like it was her ankle, and since she wasn’t in a cast, I presume her ankle isn’t broken. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get a chance to see her at some point this season, though I am not holding my breath.

Up top, the central striker role will be filled by Gio Canali, Swanson’s prized transfer from Miami. Two years ago as a freshman, Canali scored nine goals and was on the ACC All-Freshman team. Much is going to be expected of Canali. It has been four years since Virginia had a 10-goal scorer – Hailey Hopkins – and much of Virginia’s nosedive in ACC and NCAA tournament eligibility can be attributed to this lack. If Canali can reach the level of production, for a much better Cavalier team than her Miami one, Virginia can make some noise in the post season.

But, and there’s always a “but” when it comes to Virginia these days, is that it looks like Canali will be away representing Brazil at the U20 World Cup. Yep. Like Cecil, Canali will be gone a month. Which has the cascading effect of forcing Swanson to play either Halpern or Ross or even Sophie Bradley as the striker. None of them inspire me.

The good news on the striker front comes from two-time redshirt Aniyah Collier who was slotted in at center against the Power. Let’s just say that Collier answered any questions about her speed vs the Power. It takes a long time to recover match fitness and form when you’ve been away from the game for two seasons, but I would hope she gets first crack at deputizing in Canali’s absence.

Vicki Safradin is the goalkeeper and she has the chance to be the best in the ACC. This will be her third year starting between the pipes with last year being the first time she showed she’d deserved the #1 keeper designation coming out of high school. She’s a true shot-stopper and she made great strides with her distribution last season. Her backup will be Wicki Dunlap who looked very confident in her 30-minute stint vs the Power.

The Outlook

There are two story lines for the Cavaliers this season. The first revolves around Pearl Cecil. She is an audacious talent, and for all of the accolades that Addison Halpern rode into Charlottesville on, Pearl may be the best player on this team. I think she’s ready to make this team hers, and I think she has the dog in her. But she’s a sophomore, playing in the back, alongside fifth-years Tatum Galvin and Faith Broering. For good measure, transfer Reese Mattern who lined up at right back for Virginia’s best 10 minutes vs the Power, is third year. Pearl can lead this backline, and she could lead this team, excepting that she will be gone for a month. She is most likely going to miss Tennessee, Georgetown, Wake Forest and UNC.

Mackenzie Mize looks like a keeper in the back line, but the prerequisite for a great season, as I see it, is the development of Cecil into a force at the back. And that will take time. Time that she’s losing a month of this year.

The second through line, and one that I feel more comfortable about as we head into the season, is the continued growth of Addison Halpern, as a midfielder. Swanson has gone on record as saying she has the talent of Morgan Brien, a two-time MAC Hermann trophy winner. I’ve never seen Swanson say that about anybody, from Phoebe McLernon to Alexa Spaanstra to Lia Godfrey. I’ll trust Swanson to be a better judge of talent than myself, but I think that implies that he’s focused on playing Halpern in midfield and not as an emergency fill-in for Canali at forward. Against the Power, Halpern slotted all across both pairs of pairings. Plus, there is it loss of Flammia to consider. With Jill’s absence, there are just fewer available attacking midfielders. How well Halpern settles into this role will go a long way towards determining Virginia’s success on the pitch.

The Season

Virginia plays 17 games – seven out of conference to go with a 10-game ACC slate – with games against Tennessee and Georgetown being the best of the non-conference games. It is a far cry from last year’s slate, the strength of which helped propel Virginia to a six-week stay at #1. As I understand it, a couple of marquee matchups fell apart last minute and there was no time to find more challenging competition.

In the ACC, there are four tiers. Of the five first-tier teams, the Hoos play Notre Dame, UNC and Duke while avoiding Stanford and FSU. If there were two ACC teams I could avoid, it would be the Cardinal and the Seminoles. The second-tier teams are Louisville, Wake and Clemson, and Virginia is playing all three. Virginia also gets Miami, SMU and Syracuse, so the women do get a couple of gimmes. All in all, there are 17 teams in the ACC; everyone is playing wildly unbalanced schedules. Virginia’s seems very middle of the road and could have done much worse.

The 2026 season starts off with Virginia hosting Northwestern on Wednesday, August 12th at 7:00. The game is on the ACC Network Extra. This is my tenth year covering the team. Why not join me for the ride?

Add us as a preferred source on Google