BLACKSBURG – It was a day filled with excitement for the Virginia Tech men's soccer team as senior James Kasak was selected in the MLS Draft Monday afternoon.
Kasak was taken by Sporting Kansas City with the sixth pick of the fourth round, becoming just the seventh player overall to be selected in the MLS Draft and the fourth under head coach Mike Brizendine.
"As cliché as it sounds, words can't really describe the feeling," Kasak said Tuesday. "It was beyond exciting and surreal to have years of hard work finally pay off."
🚨 MLS DRAFT UPDATE 🚨@James_kasak becomes the 7️⃣th Hokie selected in the MLS Draft as he's taken 84th overall by @SportingKC
— Virginia Tech Men's Soccer (@HokiesMSoccer) January 13, 2020
Congratulations James 👏#Hokies 🦃⚽️ pic.twitter.com/GM2V2tKexl
In his four years with the program, the Stuarts Draft, Virginia native scored six goals, tallied 13 assists and started 44 of 75 games for the Hokies, including a streak of 39 consecutive starts.
Kasak wrapped up his final season in the maroon and orange tallying three goals and five assists for a career-high 11 points. The midfielder also scored the first game-winning goal of his career in Tech's 2-1 win against Loyola (Md.)
"Playing at Tech transformed me as a player," Kasak said. "My coaches and teammates helped me develop tremendously and pushed me to grow. I definitely still have more years to develop, but can't wait to get started."
Kasak and the rest of his class (Will Mejia, Brendan Moyers, Nikal Clarke-Smith, Marc Hoppler and Jon Ingason) will be one to remember for their time in Blacksburg. His class finished with the most wins since joining the ACC (46), highest ever NCAA seed (10th), most NCAA wins (6), and most consecutive tournament appearances (4).