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GAME NOTES

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Hokies will play their first road game of the 2016 season as they travel to Gardner-Webb for a 12 p.m. game on Sunday afternoon.

The Hokies are coming off a season-opnening loss to Navy on Friday afternoon at the new Virginia Tech Indoor Practice Facility, 12-6. Meghan Macera led the Hokies as she scored two goals and added an assist.

Tech will be facing Gardner-Webb for just the second time in program history. The Hokies dominated the contest with Gardner-Webb last year, winning 20-1 in Blacksburg. Tara Feehan had a team-high three goals in the victory last season while Meghan Macera also had two goals in the game.

Overall, the Hokies return 24 members of their roster from the 2015 season with the addition of eight freshmen. The young team graduated six seniors including their three leaders in total points.

The top returning offensive player is senior Jessi Thon who scored 13 goals and added 9 assists to rank third on the team in total points. Fellow senior Gracee Hendrix scored 14 goals and had one assist last season. Defensively, senior Macera will play a major factor after recording 37 ground balls last season and causing a team-high 22 turnovers. She was also second on the team with 58 draw controls.

Gardner-Webb is coming off a season in which they went 1-16 overall and 1-6 in Big South action.

It marks the season-opener for the Runnin’ Bulldogs after they had an exhibition with Division II power Limestone.

Gardner-Webb head coach Jillian Krick enters her first season at the helm after serving as an assistant coach during the program’s inagural season last year. She was officially named to the post on June 19th. The new program only has two upperclassman, one senior and one junior. They have 10 sophomores and 10 freshman. 11 players overall return for Gardner-Webb.

The Runnin’ Bulldogs were picked to finish eighth in the nine-team Big South Conference. Their leading goal scorer, Amanda Steinmuller is back after scoring 18 goals and three assists in 2015. Monique Martin is another key player for the Runnin’ Bulldogs as she had 10 goals and four assists. She also had a team-high 55 draw controls and 54 ground balls.

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