Godfrey’s Return Buoys Hoos

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For University of Virginia soccer star Lia Godfrey, her 2023 season ended before it began. She suffered a serious knee injury in the spring of ’23 early in the Cavaliers’ tour of Italy and spent the fall rehabilitating.

That would have been her fourth season at Virginia. But Godfrey had enrolled at the University amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and so had another year of eligibility remaining, and even before her injury she’d decided to return in 2024.

Head coach Steve Swanson, who’s heading into his 25th season at UVA, is delighted to have her back. As a junior in 2022, her third year as a starter, Godfrey totaled eight goals and five assists and was named a first-team All-American.

“She’s just such a difference-maker, because she can create things on her own and she can combine well with others,” Swanson said. “You have someone who can get assists or create assists, and someone who can score goals. Obviously, scoring goals was an issue for us last year. Part of that, obviously, was because we didn’t have Lia. I think having her back gives us another presence, another creator, playmaker, goal-scorer, and we need those.”

Virginia opens the season at 6 p.m. Thursday against Townson at Klöckner Stadium. Injuries ravaged the Wahoos (8-3-6) in 2023—Emma Dawson, Laney Rouse and Brianna Jablonowski also missed all or most of the season—and they were spectators during the NCAA tournament for the first time in Swanson’s tenure.

“Anyone with an injury knows that it’s hard to be on the outside looking in,” Godfrey said. “Every game day, you want to just step out onto the field and play and help the team in any way you can. And the team was definitely disappointed with the results last year, so we’re all really motivated to excel this year.”

Swanson said he hopes Godfrey’s absence “allowed us to give other opportunities to other players, and I think they’ve grown. And now hopefully with Lia back in the fold, we can sling-shot forward faster than we could have any other way. That’s kind of my positive spin on her injury. But it’s good to have her back and it’s good to have her on the field again. She understands our style, she understands our system, and she’s one of the best midfielders, if not the best, in the country. It’s hard to lose somebody like that.”

A midfielder from Fleming Island, Fla., Godfrey needed only three-and-a-half years to graduate from UVA with a bachelor’s degree in biology. When the fall semester starts, she’ll begin pursuing a master’s in public health from UVA’s School of Medicine. (Two of her teammates, Laney Rouse and Laughlin Ryan, are in that program, too.) Godfrey is also an accomplished pianist.

“In our day and age now where there have been so many young players who have passed up college to turn pro, I think you’ve got somebody here who really values her education and has invested in her classes and studies,” Swanson said, “and pushes herself not just on the field but as a student, as someone trying to acquire more knowledge.

“I think she’s a great role model. If you look in the dictionary for student-athlete, there would be a picture of Lia Godfrey. I could say that about several of our players, but certainly about Lia. She’s motivated about both soccer and school, and she’s a good musician. There’s not a lot of things she can’t do. She’s very bright.”

Her master’s program doesn’t end until December 2025, so Godfrey could play for the Cavaliers next fall, too. That decision will come later. Whenever her college career ends, Godfrey hopes to play soccer professionally, but her long-term goal is to become a veterinarian.

“Coming into college, I knew I wanted to do something in science,” Godfrey said, “but I didn’t exactly know what that was until I took a couple classes here. I knew I didn’t want to do research.”

Her family has a Doberman named Zena, and during a summer break back in Florida, Godfrey shadowed Zena’s vet. “I really enjoyed it,” she said, “and so kind of from then on, I pretty much decided that that’s what I wanted to do.”

That Godfrey ended up at UVA was no surprise. She played club soccer for Luis Torres, whose daughter Kaili had a stellar career at Virginia and was something of a big sister to Godfrey. The elder Torres also coached Morgan Brian, who became an All-American at UVA and played for the U.S. Women’s National Team.

Torres and Brian were “kind of my role models when I was growing up,” Godfrey told VirginiaSports.com in 2020. “So seeing them become the great players they became and play here at the University of Virginia, it was definitely a reason why I wanted to come here.”

Godfrey has an older sister, Britney, and a twin brother, Garret, who’s starting graduate school at the University of Florida.

“They’ve been raised really well,” Swanson said. “They’re just humble and service-oriented and very bright. Lia is a really good teammate. You wouldn’t know she’s got all these accolades; that’s just not the way she goes about her life, her every day. She wants to be part of a team, she wants to be part of a community, and she’s loved by everyone, that’s for sure.”

The Godfreys love to travel. The family went to Japan last winter and toured Scotland this summer, with stops in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The favorite place Lia has visited over the years?

“That’s a tough question,” she said. “I really, I really liked Tokyo. I would want to go back to Japan, but there’s just so many places. I really like Europe too, in general. Our family, when we go to a city, we like to explore. We’re big foodies, so we like to eat the food there. So really, any place we go, we really enjoy.”

Her mother’s side of the family is Italian, Godfrey said, and several relatives were at the game where she was injured in May 2023. “So it was a bummer,” she said.

Still, she stayed positive. She’d suffered a torn ACL in high school, too, and “I think helped me in a way,” Godfrey said, “knowing that I’ve come back from this before, so I’m confident that I can do it again. It’s just very different being in college versus high school, certain responsibilities that you have. In terms of commitment to the team, you still have to go to practices, and you have to do rehab on top of that. So it’s a lot more time spent doing team activities versus in high school.”

Her rehab went well, and she could have played in some of the Hoos’ spring games this year, but she sat them out as a precaution.

“There was no rush,” Godfrey said. “My goal was just to be ready for games by the beginning of this fall season. And so in the spring, we didn’t want to risk anything. So even if I was technically clear, I still eased into things and made sure I was ready for this fall 2024.”

Recovering from a serious injury is “definitely a gradual process,” Godfrey said. “There’s certain steps, certain milestones that you have to hit. First, it was running, just being able to run on grass. Then you transition to cutting, maybe cutting a little bit faster, then doing certain 1-v-1 moves, then getting into contact, then getting the first big tackle. So it’s definitely a buildup of confidence.”

The Cavaliers’ preseason included exhibition games against Tennessee and Georgetown. Godfrey played in both, and “I think that definitely helped my confidence,” she said.

Now comes the season opener. “I’m so happy to be back,” Godfrey said.

The Hoos are home again Sunday, when they’ll meet Northwestern at 1 p.m.

“I think we’re a really strong and experienced team,” Godfrey said. “We have a lot of fifth-years coming back, and a lot of players last year got a lot of experience, so we’re experienced and we’re super motivated. We don’t want a repeat of what happened last season and we’re determined to make sure that does not happen again.”

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