BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech Athletics is pleased to announce its fall live event/broadcast matrix on Tuesday, which includes streaming 30 matches at Thompson Field and Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum.
It represents the most coverage in the history of Tech's volleyball and men's and women's soccer programs in a single season. All of the contests will be accessible on ACC Network Extra and the WatchESPN app.
"Our primary focus is to give Virginia Tech Athletics as much exposure as possible and to get the stories of our student-athletes in front of as many eyes as we can," senior director of ACC Network Operations Eric Frey said. "This partnership with ESPN leading up to and beyond the official launch one year from now allows us to do that, and the result is more coverage on this platform than ever before.
"Though the network doesn't officially launch for another year, we are operating as though it already has in every way, from scheduling to production quality to talent acquisition."
Volleyball has the most home matches of the Hokies' three fall Olympic sports with 13, women's soccer has 10 and men's soccer has seven.
Jon Laaser and Andrew Allegretta will be the primary play-by-play personalities and a rotation will be used for other play-by-play personalities and color analysts.
Jake Lawrence will be the primary analyst for volleyball matches, while Blayne Fink and Morgan Conklin will handle soccer duties.
Lawrence has 10 years of volleyball coaching experience at the Division I level, with stops at College of Charleston, Georgetown and Virginia Tech. He was the head coach at Loyola University Maryland from 2011-14.
Fink, a former goalkeeper for the Hokies, graduated in 2017 after studying multimedia journalism. During the past few years, she has worked in the booth as an analyst calling men's and women's soccer games for ACC Network Extra.
Conklin is a 2016 multimedia journalism graduate and former women's soccer player for the Hokies. On the field, Conklin helped the Hokies to four consecutive NCAA appearances, including reaching the 2013 College Cup in Cary, North Carolina.
Professionally, Conklin has worked as on-air talent for Fox Sports, ESPN, SEC Network and ESPNU, covering multiple sports and events. Since 2017, she has been an analyst for both the USL and NWSL, covering professional soccer throughout North America.
Earlier in August, the Sports Business Journal released an article on the upcoming launch of the ACC Network and how schools are preparing for it. To read the story, click here.
Tech was highlighted in the article on how it was gearing up for the launch, with quotes from athletics director Whit Babcock and senior associate athletic director for internal operations Angie Littlejohn. The ACC Network is on schedule to go live next August in 2019.
