Hokie ClubBLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech women's soccer head coach Charles "Chugger" Adair has announced the addition of one more player to the 2018 Hokies team as Mathilda Lindström will join the program for the fall season.
Lindström is a 5-foot-2 forward from Hässelby, Stockholm, Sweden, who attended the Bromma Gymnasium prior to her college career. She will pursue a degree in industrial design and has said she wants to work with something that can shape the future of technology and people's lives.
She comes from an athletic family as both of her parents were active in the sports realm. Her mother, Petra, was a three-sport star in high school as a transfer student in the U.S. (Apex High in North Carolina) and was named the "Athlete of the Year" in 1986, playing basketball, volleyball and boy's golf. Her father, Staffan, played soccer and ice bandy (a cross between football, ice hockey and field hockey) and, at one time attended the Swedish national camp for the sport.
Lindström played for two different club teams during her soccer career, transferring from Hässelby SK to IF Brommapojkarna in 2014 and has been with that team since the move. The team most recently won the Division 1 title in Sweden in 2017. She has also attended the Swedish National Team camp three times, once back in 2013 on the U15 squad and twice in 2015 on the U18 team. She also played in the Stockholm districts from 2013-15 and played in a national tournament representing Stockholm in 2015.
"We are excited to bring Mathilda into our program," Adair said. "During the recruiting process, our conversations with her, she's got some maturity to her. She's also got a little bit of the international game as she's represented the Sweden National Team at the youth level and she's got some very good soccer savviness, from what we've been able to see.
"It's going to take some time for her to get acclimated to the college game, but I think she's going to really provide us an option up front. She's also got some leadership skills and has the potential to compete for a spot up from, because she can score goals and create opportunities for us."
The Hokies open training camp on July 31, host an exhibition match against George Mason on Tuesday, August 7 at 6 p.m. and start the 2018 season with a tournament the weekend of August 17-19. Friday night (Aug. 17), the women's team kicks off the Hokies' 2018-19 competition season with a 7:30 p.m. match against San Diego at Thompson Field on the Virginia Tech campus.