{"id":439706,"date":"2026-10-27T20:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/439706\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T20:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T20:10:10","slug":"sam-erbach-bringing-experience-versatility-to-florida-state-soccers-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/439706\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Erbach bringing experience, versatility to Florida State soccer\u2019s offense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Sam Erbach has made an immediate impact in her first season with the Florida State soccer team, bringing offensive production and versatility to the Seminoles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Through 12 games, including 11 starts, Erbach has recorded four goals and four assists for 12 total points. She has also taken 22 shots, with 11 on goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Erbach\u2019s ability to play in different positions has allowed her to contribute in several ways as Florida State continues to build chemistry with a roster featuring several new players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">During an Oct. 7 media availability, Erbach discussed how her position can change depending on where she can make the biggest impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI really want to be wherever I\u2019m going to get the ball. Some games it\u2019s in the midfield, some games it\u2019s out wide,\u201d Erbach said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">She pointed to Florida State\u2019s matchup against Clemson as an example of where she felt most comfortable on the field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe Clemson game, I played the first half (as a) right winger for most of the half, and that was the best I have felt on the field in a long time,\u201d Erbach said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Before arriving in Tallahassee, Erbach spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at Xavier, establishing herself as one of the top offensive players in the Big East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">During her sophomore season in 2025, she started all 22 games and led the conference with 18 goals and 16 assists, totaling 52 points, the second-most in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">She also recorded 111 shots, including 56 on goal. Her performance earned her Big East Tournament Offensive MVP, Big East Midfielder of the Year, All-Big East First Team and Third Team All-American honors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Erbach helped Xavier win the Big East Tournament and advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where Xavier fell short to Colorado.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Her success began during her freshman season in 2024, when she started all 21 games and recorded 11 goals and five assists for 27 points. She finished the season with 83 shots, including 47 on goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Her performance earned her Big East Freshman of the Year, All-Big East First Team and All-Ohio First Team recognition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Florida State head coach Brian Pensky praised the experience Erbach brought to the Seminoles in the beginning of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cSam Erbach, right? She has scored, I think, 30 goals in two years and 20 assists. Right, (she is one of our) experienced players, good players, smart players, good students. Right, level kids,\u201d Pensky said early in the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Erbach has continued to show her offensive ability at Florida State, including a two-goal performance against Georgia on Sept. 3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Along with adjusting to a new program, Erbach has been building connections with her teammates, something she believes has improved throughout the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI think like every single week, it\u2019s gotten a lot better, and I think over time we\u2019ve created bonds with each other, relationships which has I think shown a lot on the field recently,\u201d Erbach said. \u201cAt the beginning, it was kind of hard in games like no one knew how each other played, but now like especially in the Clemson game, you could see those like relationships forming on the field. People were playing with each other better than we had been the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Pensky also discussed Erbach\u2019s performance against Clemson during the Oct. 7 press conference, highlighting her movement and ability to create scoring opportunities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cFirst goal, Sam makes a great run, chops the ball back, obviously defender goes to ground and she takes her chance well. All right,\u201d Pensky said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As the Seminoles move further into ACC play, Erbach\u2019s offensive experience and versatility continue to play an important role in Florida State\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Following Saturday\u2019s loss to Notre Dame, Erbach and the Seminoles will look to bounce back when they host Duke on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Erbach has made an immediate impact in her first season with the Florida State soccer team, bringing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,168601],"class_list":["post-439706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-state-womens-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}