Tech's Women's Basketball Squad Enters 2025-26 Campaign With Chip-On-Shoulder Attitude

After narrowly missing out on the NCAA Tournament last year, the Hokies feel that they have something to prove.

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"We have a chip on our shoulder," said Virginia Tech forward Carys Baker at the ACC Tipoff in early October.

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The chip was placed last year in head coach Megan Duffy's first campaign at the helm of Virginia Tech women's basketball. In the 2024-25 season, the Hokies compiled a 19-13 record, including an even .500 mark in the ACC. Eight teams from the conference were invited to the NCAA Tournament. The Hokies finished ninth in the conference standings and were one of the first four teams left out of the tournament.

"I know me and [guard Carleigh Wenzel] feel it," Baker said. "We were pretty frustrated with the outcome, of course. Just taking that into this season and having the freshmen and transfers come in, we have to show them this is exactly how it's done. And we want to be successful this year."

Baker enters off a promising sophomore campaign where she ranked second on the team in points per game (12.6) and rebounds per game (6.3). Last year, Baker transitioned into a more forward-heavy role after playing primarily at the guard slots as a freshman. This year, her areas of improvement she's been working on, as she outlined to the ACC Network, were improved ball-handling and coming off more screens and off the dribble.

Alongside Wenzel, Baker is one of the focal leaders shaping the group with the departure of Matilda Ekh and Rose Micheaux due to graduation. Wenzel herself feels more confident than ever, in part because of the confidence her own staff has oozed into her.

"Just going into this next year, [the coaching staff has] poured in so much confidence in me," Wenzel said. "Coach Duffy is telling me to shoot the ball more in practice, and I'm like, 'Yeah, shoot the ball.' But just the shots I should be taking, where I should be taking them, just not doing too much, taking what's given to me and what's open."

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Last year, Wenzel led the team in points (14.0) and assists (3.7) per game. However, this season, the bench is a deeper and connected effort. Last year, only five Hokies played over 20 minutes per game. This year, Duffy believes that both depth and versatility are improved for this year's iteration.

"I think the two things that stick out to me is our versatility and our depth is better, so finding those pieces to the puzzle is what's going to be key for us in the beginning of the season and beyond," Duffy said. "But there's a few different ways we can play with different lineups, and that was a little bit [hard] last year. These guys played heavy minutes [last year] and sometimes we couldn't take them out."

One of the cornerstones that remains in the program is the team's passion, which Baker said shows itself during practice.

"I think the passion that we have is one of our core values," Baker said. "I think we're all really passionate and you see it during practice. If somebody gets an and-one, if somebody has a big rebound over one of our practice guys, we see that passionate side that we all have. I think that plays into the chip on our shoulder that I talked about.

"I think it's important to play with passion but then we're also connected and close with each other that we all want to see each other succeed. Like if Carleigh scores, I'm going to be just as hyped if she scores as if anybody else scores. I think that's just something we play with and I'm just really excited to have that chemistry, and like Carleigh said, all 13 of us have it."

But the road ahead in-conference won't be easy. When asked to boil down what comes to mind about the ACC to one word, Duffy remarked that the conference was "elite". In the past half-decade, the conference has sent 40 teams to the NCAA Tournament. In four of those years, Virginia Tech cracked the cut. The goal is to get back and to build upon a Year 1 that was promising but came up short.

"I am enjoying putting that puzzle together and learning about them," Duffy said. "I think the big thing with our women is you've got to know them off the court, you've got to know what makes them tick, they all have big goals for themselves. But everybody has got to be working together. And so, we're working really hard to establish those new and old faces together for a great product."

Virginia Tech begins its regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 4 against Towson at 6 p.m. ET. The game will be in Cassell Coliseum (Blacksburg, Va.) and will be available for viewing on ACC Network Extra.