The story was originally published in The Western Carolinian.
After a historic season, WCU’s women’s soccer team traveled to Tuscaloosa to face off against Alabama in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The Catamounts lost to the Crimson Tide 2-0.
The Catamounts capped off the Southern Conference Championship in winning fashion, defeating the Samford Bulldogs 1-0 and sending them to the NCAA tournament.
The Catamounts entered the Southern Conference Championship Tournament as the No. 1 seed after clenching the SoCon regular season championship with a 7-2 conference record.
WCU’s women’s soccer team will compete in the NCAA tournament against Alabama Nov. 10.
Now competing in the NCAA Tournament, Head Coach Chad Miller looks to fine-tune the team’s skills.
“This time of year, it’s really more managing your body mentally and physically,” he said. “It’s about taking care of our bodies and our mind and fine-tuning things.”
The team has fostered a supportive mentality that has contributed to the team’s chemistry and performance.
“I think this is the most depth we have had in our program in a while,” Miller said. “It’s next woman up mentality.”
This season’s combination of women meshed well off the field, which transferred onto the field throughout the season.
“Our program has always been very close, but I think this year’s very unique in that the freshmen coming in integrated into the group seamlessly,” Miller said. “I think it is a very selfless group. I think they are in it for each other. They don’t worry about as much individual stuff as you see sometimes in teams, and I think that has contributed a lot to our success.
The women’s soccer team received many recognitions throughout the season.
The Catamount striker, Isabella Demarco, sophomore, was honored with a spot on the preseason All-Southern Conference team and then offensive player of the month for August.
Goalkeeper Leanne Trudel, sophomore, was awarded the Defensive Player of the Week honor for the week of Aug. 17-21 after four saves against UNC Charlotte and two saves against the Queens. She is the first to receive this award since the 2020-21 season, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Naya Marcil was awarded Offensive Player of the Week two weeks in a row this season for the weeks of Sept. 26 through Oct. 2 and Oct. 3-10. The first week, she scored 4 goals and aided with 5 assists, and the following week scored 2 goals and aided in 4 assists.
Becca Campbell was awarded the Conference Defensive Player of the Week twice for the weeks of Sept. 26 through Oct. 2 and Oct. 17-23, leading into the SoCon Championship tournament. She played 90 minutes in the competition against UNCG and 86 minutes against Wofford, scored a goal against the Terriers and then scored the Catamount’s only goal in the competition against ETSU.
Alexis DeMarco was awarded the Conference Offensive Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 10-16. She scored two goals against the Citadel, both assisted by her sister Isabella DeMarco.
Miller has expressed his pride in this season’s team and staff, seeing a bright future for the women’s soccer program.
“I am most proud of… the people we have in our program,” Miller said. “Our women’s soccer team last spring had a 3.84 team GPA and led the athletic department in community service hours.”
Southern Conference Women’s Soccer Championship
The Catamounts shut out their opponents throughout the SoCon Championship Tournament.
They faced off against the Wofford Terriers Friday, Oct. 27, in the quarterfinals of the SoCon Championship Tournament.
The Catamounts blew the Terriers out of the water with a 5-0 game, sending the Catamounts onto the SoCon Championship Semifinals.
The Cats faced off against Furman in the semifinal round of the championship Sunday, Oct. 29.
Previously, WCU lost to the Paladins 1-2 in their only match-up in September. This time, WCU bested Furman 1-0, moving the Catamounts to the SoCon Championship game.
August Highlights
The Catamounts kicked off their season with three back-to-back wins against Marshall (Aug. 5), Davidson (Aug. 8), and UNC Asheville (Aug. 17). The final scores were 2-1, 4-0 and 1-0 respectively.
The win streak was broken up with a 0-0 tie with Queens University of Charlotte.
Queens University of Charlotte (Aug. 20) but followed up the tie with a 5-1 win against Winthrop (Aug. 23).
The Catamount acquired their first loss against UT Martin (Aug. 27) with a close score of 1-2 and followed up with a 2-2 tie with Georgia State (Aug. 31).
September Highlights
The Catamounts were shut out by the Clemson Tigers (Sept. 3), ending with a 5-0 score.
The game against WCU’s archrival, Appalachian State, was canceled due to a lightning strike that delayed the game two hours from the scheduled kickoff.
The soccer team tied with East Carolina (Sept. 10) and then followed it up with two shutout games against Presbyterian College (Sept. 14) and Samford (Sept. 21) with scores of 4-0 and 1-0, respectively.
The Catamounts lost 2-1 against Furman (Sept. 24), then turned around and started their end-of-the-season winning streak with a 4-0 shutout against UNCG (Sept. 28).
October Highlights
The Cats carried over the win streak into October with two back-to-back shutouts against Wofford (Oct. 1) and Chattanooga (Oct. 5) with respective scores of 5-0 and 2-0.
Against Mercer (Oct. 8), the Cats triumphed 2-1, then turned around and shut out The Citadel (Oct. 12) 3-0 and VMI (Oct. 15) 4-0.
The Catamounts concluded their regular season with a 1-2 loss against ETSU (Oct. 22). Their final record for the regular season and Southern Conference Tournament was 13-4-3 leading into the NCAA Tournament.
