By now, plenty of you have probably seen the crazy footage of New Mexico women’s soccer player Elizabeth Lambert going absolutely nuts in that game against Brigham Young.

A lot of people wonder how common this is in women’s soccer. Virginia Tech’s leading scorer, freshman midfielder Kelly Conheeney said she has experienced similar, though not as dirty, tactics before. Most often, it was an opponent not-so-discretely trying to take out her ankles.

“A lot of it happened in high school and some of it in club,” said Conheeney, who is from Ridgewood, N.J.. “A lot of it in high school because we didn’t have that good of a high school team, but I was definitely one of the best players. They [opposing coaches] would just say, ‘Kick her. Get her out of the game.’ I had people not even going for the ball and just coming and hitting me and knocking me over.”

This reminded me of one of the best bad-guy lines from a sports movie, in the “get him a body bag!” scene from “The Karate Kid.” Not be outdone is that part of “The Mighty Ducks” where that sinister Hawks coach tells his team, “I want you to drop Banks like a bad habit. I want him out of the game.” (By the way, there might not be a better movie name than Emilio Estevez’s hot-shot attorney character in that flick: Gordon Bombay.)

Anyway, back to reality. When Conheeney heard opposing coaches tell players to take her out, she’d notify the officials. “Watch out,” she’d say. “She’s after me.”

If anything fishy actually happened, Conheeney said, “The refs called it and none of the refs ever let it pass by like they did in the BYU game. The refs looked after me.”

Fortunately for Conheeney, she never got hurt as a result of dirty play. “I’ve been cheap-shotted a lot,” she said. “That’s the big thing: They want it to get you out of your game, but you can’t let it get to you.”

Has she ever gotten her pony tail yanked like that poor girl from BYU?

“No, but I’ve seen it happen,” she said. “But not that hard. She almost snapped her head off.”

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The Hokies have made steady improvements under Cagle, who is in her seventh season in Blacksburg. Just take a look at their overall and ACC records (Cagle arrived during their final season in the Big East, 2003) …

2009 – 14-7, 6-4
2008 – 10-9-4, 4-4-2
2007 – 8-7-3, 3-5-2
2006 – 6-8-4, 1-6-3
2005 – 6-10-3, 1-7-2
2004 –  11-9, 4-5

Cagle made an interesting point – along the lines of the eternal chicken/egg debate – when she was talking about how she sees good chemistry on this team.

“Some of that’s that we’ve won, and so it’s been a little bit easier,” she said. “But what comes first? Does winning coming first to make that? Or do people’s sacrifices come first to allow us to win? I think the sacrfices come first, in my opinion.

“When sacrifices are made, and you’re winning, then maybe it’s a little easier to be in those roles. I think it’s a cyclical thing. You’ve got to have sacrifice, then if you’ve got that and it helps you win, then it’s a good recipe. That’s just kind of what’s happened to us this year.”

I think that means the egg came first.

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The Hokies made the NCAA tournament in ’04 and ’08, losing 2-1 to William and Mary in ’04 in Chapel Hill, N.C., and to Brigham Young in ’08 in Provo, Utah.

Are they ready, as a No. 3 seed, to break through Friday against unseeded Murray State? (The 64-team NCAA women’s soccer tournament only seeds the top four teams in each bracket.)

The Racers went 11-8-2, 5-2-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference and are playing the NCAAs for the first time. They and the Hokies had no common opponents this season. If Tech wins, it plays Sunday against the winner of Marquette and Dayton, the host team.

Oh, and if Murray State sounds familiar, that’s where Tech’s football coach, Frank Beamer, got his head-coaching start.

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A quick glance at Tech’s stats reveals that sophomore goalkeeper Kristin Carden missed the season’s first seven games, before debuting Sept. 20 against Davidson. That seems curious, since Carden was Tech’s starter last season. What gives?

“She took a break from the sport a little bit in the spring of last year [spring of 2009] and then just missed it,” Cagle said.

Carden wasn’t with the Hokies at all during their spring practices. Cagle thought she might not return. But she did.

“We’re happy she’s back, because she’s enjoying herself,” Cagle said. “I think she’s just happy to be playing now, and that’s the important part. You can look at her and just know how happy she is. She’s happy in her own skin. I just think that she’s just happy playing soccer. Doesn’t that always make you best, when you’re happy doing what you’re doing?”

After coming back, Carden started the final 14 games – and played well when it mattered most. In Tech’s 1-0 home win over No. 1 North Carolina on Oct. 4, she made an incredible 10 saves, tying her career high. If you’re wondering whether this is a lot of saves, consider that in Tech’s other 13 games, Carden averaged 3.2 saves.

The leading scorer on Virginia Tech’s women’s soccer team has experienced it before, but never had an opponent try to yank her head off, like that player from New Mexico did against Brigham Young. That, and more as the Hokies prepare for the NCAA tournament.