NORFOLK — Nearly five years ago, Yuliia Khrystiuk left her home in Ukraine for America, where she would get an education and play soccer at Old Dominion. It’s what she wanted, even if she was well aware it would be a challenge.
And it has been. Some hurdles, like starting college during a pandemic and adjusting to a different culture, she was prepared for. But not a knee injury that ended her season before it started. And certainly not the brutal invasion of her homeland.
Yuliia (rhymes with Julia) dealt with this some 5,000 miles from her family. But she wasn’t alone.
“I’m so grateful for my teammates,” said Khrystiuk, a grad student and forward for the Monarchs. “They’ve been supportive through my injury, the war, any setbacks. They’ve always supported me and written me notes asking how my family is doing.
“And the professors from all my courses reach out. They’ve been supportive if I don’t feel mentally well to go to class or if I needed extra time for an assignment. I always got that support from them. I’m really grateful to be here.”
After all, the only thing better than a family is having two families.
“She came here at a tough time,” ODU coach Angie Hind said. “COVID, then everything in Ukraine, it’s just been a lot. And we helped her get through it.”
Nearly five years ago, Yuliia Khrystiuk left her home in Ukraine for America. (Courtesy of ODU Athletics)
Khrystiuk came to ODU in January of 2021 and saw time in five of the Monarchs’ 11 games in the spring season. In the fall, she played in 18 of ODU’s 19 games, including a 1-0 win over Southern Miss in the Conference USA final.
All was well … until Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Khrystiuk was at Dulles International awaiting her flight when she heard the news. She immediately called her parents in Vinnytsia, where it was about 5 a.m.
“My mom was asleep and didn’t even know what had happened,” Khrystiuk said. “She was asking why I was calling so early. It was really hard for me mentally just knowing I’m so far away and didn’t know if they were safe.”
Although the city was hit by a missile strike that killed 23 people in 2022, Vinnytsia is a good distance from the front lines. Yuliia goes home for Christmas, but with the suspension of commercial flights in Ukraine, she flies into Poland and takes a train home. Which, all in all, makes for two days of travel.
On April 15, six weeks after the invasion, Old Dominion hosted William & Mary in a friendly. But it was much more than that.
With Hind and Tribe coach Julie Shackford working together, both teams showed their support by wearing “Stand With Ukraine” T-shirts and Khrystiuk’s name and number on the back.
“Sports has a way of being really powerful in these moments,” Hind said.
That fall, she played in all 21 games as the Monarchs won (after a conference switch) the Sun Belt Conference championship. ODU repeated in ’23, but that was the season Khrystiuk missed with tears in her ACL and both meniscuses.
“It was crazy because I had never been out of soccer for more than a few weeks at a time,” she said. “It was my first major injury, which was really hard mentally. It made me realize how much I love soccer and how much I missed it at that time.”
Her coaches and teammates were there. With time on her hands, Khrystiuk stayed busy by watching game film of upcoming opponents and doing scouting reports.
“That made me feel like I was a big part of the team without actually playing,” Khrystiuk said. “It was really, really cool.”
It’s something each player does at some point, but Khrystiuk went the extra mile.
“Yuliia will put in the details that none of the other players see,” Hind said. “She watches soccer all the time, which is something American players don’t always do. She understands the game.”
Since her recovery, Khrystiuk has played in all 36 of the Monarchs’ games with 29 starts. This season, she leads her team and is third in the Sun Belt with eight assists, two of which came in the regular-season finale.
Khrystiuk hopes to add more in the conference tournament, which No. 2 ODU (10-2-04) begins Monday at 2:30 p.m. against No. 7 Georgia State (9-7-2). Since the 2021 fall season, the Monarchs have won three conference championships (one in Conference USA, two in the Sun Belt) in four years.
“Those three championships are a pretty big part of my time,” she said. “But last year, we didn’t win it. That adds extra motivation to get back to winning.”
Khrystiuk graduated last December with a degree in sports management and is working on her Master’s in physical education with a concentration in coaching.
“I’m seriously considering trying to find a job in America after getting my degree because of how much I’ve loved my college years,” she said. “Ideally in the future I’d like to be a college coach.”
Before even being asked about this, Hind volunteered this ringing endorsement.
“I am 100% positive she’ll be a really good coach,” she said. “She’s awesome.”
Khrystiuk’s time at as a Monarch, both on the pitch and in the classroom, is winding down. She was 17 when she arrived and will be 23 when she leaves, which means nearly one-fourth of her life will have been spent at ODU.
That’s not easy to process.
“Lots of emotion,” she said. “Last week was my last home game ever. It was quite sad to play for the last time on that field.
“But it’s been great, honestly. I’ve had such great experiences meeting people and having the community behind us while receiving an education and having such a great athletic experience. I’ve loved it.”
