I think sometimes you just have to have a little faith in the process. Soccer is like lacrosse in that the girls are recruited and commit at a very early age. If one wants one of the elite D1 programs, you have to be on that recruiting schedule. And I think that it is fine to have a top D1 program as your early goal, to work toward that goal and not worry about all the othe programs oUT there because. I know a lot of sophomores who committed. That means they never went on an official overnight visit, haven’t been admitted to the school, don’t have a financial aid package. What if the d1 program doesn’t work out, what if the grades aren’t as good as Stanford needs them or if the athlete gets hurt? All the other programs that recruit juniors and seniors will still be there. The D3 are happy to look as a spring semester junior or even a fall semester senior.
It sounds like you/daughter really want a chance at a top D1 program. Now is the time for that. Seems ridiculous, but it is not in girls soccer to get on it this year, especially for the summer tournaments. At this point she should target the schools (or type of school) she wants. Why not go for it? It will soon become clear if she has no shot at those schools, then she’ll need to decide if she’d like a smaller, less urban D1 or perhaps a d2 or d3. Other things can happen too, like a coach at a college she never heard of approaching her (through a club coach). It feels great to be wanted, and suddenly a school she’d never considered looks pretty good.
Most of the girls I know who were recruited to the big d1 programs as sophomores are at those programs. Grades and scores worked out, financing worked out, same coaches wanted them as seniors as recruited them as sophomores. Their parents were ‘on’ it when they were freshmen, they travel to the summer tournaments, kept up the chatter in the fall of sophomore year, and committed in the spring. Many, many, many of us did not do that. My daughter did not want to play in college (she was tiny as freshman and sophomore). She did not go to the Maximum Exposure camp where many are recruited, especially those btwn sophisticated and junior year. She did not play on a club team the summer after sophisticated year. When she did decide to play in college, those D1 opportunities were gone. That worked out fine for her (she plays D2), but you should be aware that once those elite D1 schools fill the rosters, your chances of getting on those teams are gone, usually before junior year starts. There are plenty of other options, but the big elite teams are gone.
Even if selected for the elite D1 programs, things can still happen-- didn’t make the grades or test scores, got hurt, changed her mind. That’s fine, she can go to a different program, but she will probably not have the option of moving ‘up’ in the hierarchy if she doesn’t act before or at least during sophomore year.