That Godfrey ended up at UVA was no surprise. She played club soccer for Luis Torres, whose daughter Kaili had a stellar career at Virginia and was something of a big sister to Godfrey. The elder Torres also coached Morgan Brian, who became an All-American at UVA and played for the U.S. Women’s National Team.
Torres and Brian were “kind of my role models when I was growing up,” Godfrey told VirginiaSports.com in 2020. “So seeing them become the great players they became and play here at the University of Virginia, it was definitely a reason why I wanted to come here.”
Godfrey has an older sister, Britney, and a twin brother, Garret, who’s starting graduate school at the University of Florida.
“They’ve been raised really well,” Swanson said. “They’re just humble and service-oriented and very bright. Lia is a really good teammate. You wouldn’t know she’s got all these accolades; that’s just not the way she goes about her life, her every day. She wants to be part of a team, she wants to be part of a community, and she’s loved by everyone, that’s for sure.”
The Godfreys love to travel. The family went to Japan last winter and toured Scotland this summer, with stops in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The favorite place Lia has visited over the years?
“That’s a tough question,” she said. “I really, I really liked Tokyo. I would want to go back to Japan, but there’s just so many places. I really like Europe too, in general. Our family, when we go to a city, we like to explore. We’re big foodies, so we like to eat the food there. So really, any place we go, we really enjoy.”
Her mother’s side of the family is Italian, Godfrey said, and several relatives were at the game where she was injured in May 2023. “So it was a bummer,” she said.
Still, she stayed positive. She’d suffered a torn ACL in high school, too, and “I think helped me in a way,” Godfrey said, “knowing that I’ve come back from this before, so I’m confident that I can do it again. It’s just very different being in college versus high school, certain responsibilities that you have. In terms of commitment to the team, you still have to go to practices, and you have to do rehab on top of that. So it’s a lot more time spent doing team activities versus in high school.”
Her rehab went well, and she could have played in some of the Hoos’ spring games this year, but she sat them out as a precaution.
“There was no rush,” Godfrey…