Sometimes timing is everything. A year ago, Jazmine Reeves was coming off her worst season as a Virginia Tech Hokie. Reeves logged only four goals and four starts in a 20-game season. Needless to say, Reeves wasn’t on anyone’s 2014 college draft boards then.
Fast forward a year and Reeves is now a Boston Breakers’ draftee, the first in VaTech history.
In 2013, Reeves was the Cinderella player on the year’s Cinderella team. In her senior year, Reeves nearly doubled her career goal total. She finished the year with 11 tallies on the year after 14 the previous three years. Reeves’ transition from forgettable forward to first team All-American wasn’t product of any fairytale, but rather a lot of hard work.
Following her selection by the Breakers with the 21st overall pick, Reeves admitted that being selected in the NWSL College Draft didn’t seem likely following her junior season.
“Personally, I wasn’t expecting it,” she said. “I wasn’t coming off of a great junior year. I was kind of nonexistent really. I worked really hard this summer coming into my senior year and it paid off. I had an amazing team surrounding me.”
While all eyes in the college soccer world were trained on the Virginia Cavaliers’ historic unbeaten streak, their in-state foes were quietly making some history of their own. After three years of finishing in the bottom half of the ACC, Virginia Tech sprung onto the scene last fall and established themselves as a contender for the ACC Championship.
The two teams faced off on Halloween and Virginia downed the Hokies 2-0. The Cavaliers’ win set the stage for the teams’ next meeting a week later in the ACC Championship semifinal. Going into the match, Virginia was 20-0 and the Hokies were 15-3-2. The common perception was that the Cavaliers would once again claim victory. After all, Virginia was not only unbeaten, but led the all-time series against the Hokies 13-2-1. In fact, in Reeves’ time with the team, the Hokies had failed to beat the Cavaliers up until that point.
With most of the women’s soccer community watching, the Hokies stunned the Cavaliers 4-2. Reeves came up big for her side, scoring two goals. She wreaked havoc on a backline that had conceded the goals total in the previous 10 games. Suddenly, everyone wanted to know more about the forward who was central in destroying the Cavaliers’ perfect season.
“It was definitely surreal…We were up I think 4-1 at one point and I was still biting my nails the whole time because of how great of a team they were. To do that and score goals with people watching at that time, it was amazing,” Reeves said Friday of her team’s victory two months prior.
The Hokies fell to Florida State in the conference final, but the team’s journey was far from over. Virginia Tech’s remarkable season led them to the College Cup for the first time in history before falling again to the Seminoles. Their memorable season may not have been possible without Reeves, who tied for first in goals scored for the team.
It’s been a year of historic firsts for Virginia Tech. Reeves’ first team All-ACC award, All-American award, and MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist nomination were also school firsts. Friday, she also became the first Virginia Tech player drafted by a professional women’s soccer team.