CHARLOTTE - Virginia Tech’s women’s basketball team arrived at the 2026 ACC Tip-Off on Monday with a roster that looks almost nothing like last season’s group, and head coach Megan Duffy made it clear that’s part of the plan.
The Hokies brought back only six players from 13 roster spots for the new season, forcing a major reset around a mix of transfers and freshmen. Duffy said the new faces are going to be a major part of the conversation around this team.
"I think with our team I think they're going to be interested in what our new faces look like," Duffy said. "I think we went out in not only the portal, but with our freshman class to fill some needs."
Virginia Tech added seven players overall, including four freshmen. Among the newcomers are Tennessee graduate forward Alyssa Latham and sophomore Lauren Hurst, both from Tennessee, along with Natalee Goff, who transferred in from Emmanuel University.
Duffy said the Hokies are spending preseason trying to build the kind of identity she wants to see once the games begin.
"Every year teams are blending new faces and trying to get that chemistry, and we're no different," Duffy exclaimed. "We're working extremely hard right now in this preseason time to lay the foundation of how gritty we're going to be, how tough we're going to be."
That toughness has defined Virginia Tech under Duffy, and she said the program is still pushing forward from that base.
"It's been our goal every year to build I say Hokie stone by Hokie stone, continuing to improve. We made a big step with our confidence, with our ability to lay a great foundation for future years." Duffy exclaimed.
The Hokies’ defensive edge has been a calling card through Duffy’s first two seasons in Blacksburg, and that doesn’t appear to be changing. Last season, Virginia Tech ranked third nationally in steals and fourth in blocks, with many of the active guards who fueled that pressure returning in 2026.
"Yeah, I think after our first year we knew we had to get better defensively. I think we've relied on our toughness and our grit," Duffy continued.
"We'll have some other players that can stretch the floor. It's an exciting brand of basketball.
We want to play fast. We want to play gritty."
She pointed to the guard rotation as a key part of that pressure, naming Carleigh Wenzel, Samyha Suffren and Leila Wells as players who can keep that downhill attack alive.
"I think you'll see this year with the combination of Carleigh, Samyha Suffren, Leila Wells. We'll have that same attack downhill that can manufacture points when you need it sometimes," Duffy said.
Wenzel, one of the voices alongside Duffy on Monday, also singled out Latham’s versatility.
"[She's] extremely versatile. She can guard one through five.
It's to get steals, get deflections, turn the ball over; she can shoot the three, she can shoot the fadeaway, she can bring the ball up," Wenzel said about Latham. "I don't know what she can't do."
Virginia Tech’s freshman class also includes Nigerian native Jessica Dimaro, who spent the past two seasons in Japan’s W League with the Toyota Boshoku Sunshine Rabbits. Dimaro was named the league’s rookie of the year in 2024-25, then followed that by nearly averaging a double-double last season at 12.0 points and 9.7 rebounds per game.
At 6-foot-4, Dimaro gives the Hokies a different kind of interior presence, even if her impact doesn’t always show up in the flashiest way. Duffy said her size should help open things up for the players who score on the perimeter and inside.
"Alyssa, for example, is going to be able to score inside. Then, obviously, you'll hear the name Jessie Dimaro, a young woman from Nigeria, coming in who will be a great presence for us inside that will make Alyssa's job easy too," Duffy said.
For all the turnover, Duffy said the energy around this group has been unmistakable.
"This has probably been the most motivated group I've been around. They want to be in the gym, they want to be great," Duffy said. "They're totally bought into the process it takes to be great, so it's a hungry group of young women."
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