Team Previews Courtesy of MAC Athletic Communications Departments
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Below is a team-by-team preview for the 2024 MAC Women's Soccer season.
The MAC women’s soccer season begins on Thursday, August 15, while conference play is set to begin on Thursday, September 19. The season will culminate with the MAC Women’s Soccer Championship, which takes place November 3 (Quarterfinals), November 7 (Semifinals) and November 10 (Finals).
Team-By-Team Previews (In Preseason Coaches Poll Predicted Order)
1. Western Michigan Broncos
Western Michigan enters the 2024 season as the reigning MAC Champions and brings back a wealth of talent from last year's team. The Broncos return their top four goal scorers, including graduate student Jen Blitchok, who led the way with nine tallies. Jenna Blackburn had six goals, while Abby Werthman and Emily Pagett combined for nine. WMU's roster includes six All-MAC performers from a season ago, including conference Defensive Player of the Year Mira Pierre-Webster and Goalkeeper of the Year Lauren Boafo. Blitchok, Blackburn, Werthman and Brielle Gomez are also back after All-MAC seasons in 2023.
Outside of the main core, WMU also brings back Heidi Thomasma and Drew Martin. Thomasma had seven points on two goals and three assists, while Martin posted four points on one goal and two assists. Madi Canada also returns after a strong sophomore campaign where she earned All-MAC Tournament recognition. She had two assists in 2023.
Aiding the Brown and Gold this season will be 10 new players. In the transfer portal, the Broncos added Ava Beckett (Providence), Callie Cunningham (Kent State), Maya Dean (Bowling Green) and Sammi Glover (Iowa). Dominae Butler, June Mullen, Kailah Newcomb, Laney Peterson, Cam Tack and Meredith Vance are the freshmen additions. WMU opens the season at home against Northern Kentucky on Aug. 15.
2. Ball State Cardinals
The Cardinals return nine players who started at least nine matches from a 2023 group that finished third in the MAC regular season standings with a 6-2-3 conference record. Two-time First Team All-MAC forward Avery Fenchel and two-time Second Team All-Conference forward Delaney Caldwell headline an offense that returns 7 of its top 8 point scorers. Coach Josh Rife sports a 42-30-19 overall record (31-12-10 MAC) since taking the reins of the program back in 2019.
3. Ohio Bobcats
The women's soccer team had a historic season in 2023. Ohio entered the MAC Tournament as the No. 6 seed after posting a 4-7-5 record in the regular season, and it came out of the tournament with its first-ever MAC Championship. Ohio defeated rival Kent State 2-1 to earn the title. The Bobcats return eighteen members of the 2023 team.
4. Kent State Golden Flashes
Head Coach Rob Marinaro’s Kent State squad will look to build off its 7-4-0 mark in conference play a season ago and return to the conference tournament.
7 starters from last year’s Golden Flashes team return, including First team All-MAC selections Kelsey Salopek and Alisa Arthur. The Flashes return 84 percent of their goals from last season, featuring all four top scorers from last year, Arthur slotted away a team high ten, Jose Morgan put away five, and Siena Stambolich and Alanna Raimondo tied with four goals apiece. Morgan and Raimondo are looking to build off their freshman seasons that saw them land on the All-MAC Freshman Team. Kent State also welcomes in 10 newcomers, seven freshmen and three transfers who look to make an instant impact on the field in 2024.
5. Buffalo Bulls
Buffalo returns 18 players, including nine starters, from last season and will welcome five freshmen and three transfers to a team that looks to get back to the MAC Tournament.
The UB offense will look a bit different this spring as the Bulls will have to replace two of their top three goal scorers from a season ago. Senior Jasmine Guerber, who looks to bounce back after missing last season with an injury, and Arianna Zumpano will anchor the UB attack after they combined for 16 goals in 2022. Juniors Sarah Woods, Marissa Foster and Ashley Reyes will also look to create scoring chances for the Bulls.
The strength of the squad is no doubt in the veteran presence in the UB midfield and back line, led by 2022 MAC Defensive Player of the Year Ellie Simmons and 2023 All-Freshman Team selection Maya Galko. The midfield has a great deal of experience with fifth year Olivia Bizzoni and seniors Kaya Schultz and Kaylin Ricci who have all been mainstays in the lineup. Transfers Kelly Severini and Frederique St.-Jean will also make an immediate impact.
The Bulls also have some balance between the pipes. Sophomore Lexie Thompson was off to a great start as a rookie, posting a 4-1-2 overall record with 17 saves and a .73 goals against average before missing the remainder of the year with an injury. Stepping up in her place was Rebecca Winslow, who recorded 30 saves and a .667 save percentage across 12 contests. The Bulls also added Dayton transfer, and Nichols School graduate, Isabella Simoncelli to the squad for added depth.
6. Bowling Green Falcons
Bowling Green returns 17 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last season's club. The 2023 team went 10-6-2 on the season, and BGSU finished the MAC regular-season schedule with a record of 8-1-2 in the MAC, good for second place in the 12-team league. The Falcons lose seven letterwinners from last year's squad, but the returning players combined to score 19 of the team's 26 goals last season.
Junior Brynn Gardner is back after leading the 2023 team with 16 points, while another third-year Falcon, Ellie Pool, was second with 13 points. Emma Stransky had nine points in her freshman campaign to rank among the top-five scorers on the '23 squad. Brynn Gardner scored a team-high six goals, with Pool having found the back of the net four times and Stransky three. Pool led the team with five assists, while Brynn Gardner had four and Stransky and Emilie Gardner three apiece.
Madison Vukas played in all 18 matches in goal a year ago, as she split time with the graduated Lili Berg – each 'keeper played 45 minutes in each game. Vukas ended the season with a goals-against average of 1.11. In MAC matches, Brynn Gardner finished with 14 points, while Pool had 10 and Lexi Czerwien five. Vukas had a GAA of just 0.55 in MAC games, and led the entire conference in saves percentage in MAC matches (.889). She and Berg combined to post seven shutouts last fall, with six coming against league foes.
Since the start of the 2018 season, the Falcons have a record of 47-8-6 in MAC regular-season matches, good for a league-best winning percentage of .820.
7. Northern Illinois Huskies
The Huskies return a majority of their scoring from 2023 including Tyra King, Lea Gruennagel and Isabel Struble who all scored multiple times in 2023. NIU returns both of their All-MAC Second Team members last season in Gruennagel and Aubrey Robertson.
NIU brings in 10 new players including four at the goalie position. Amy Stineman and Ary Purifoy are transferring from Gonzaga and Oklahoma State while Lauren Pearson and Abi Dolding enter as freshman. In 2023 Sadie McGill closed her college career with eight clean sheets, which was the most for NIU since 2008 and the third most in program history.
8. Toledo Rockets
Toledo women’s soccer will mark the second season of the Mark Batman era in 2024. Last year, the Yellow Springs, Ohio native guided Toledo to significant improvements in the win column compared to 2022, going from two to seven wins overall and one to four wins in MAC play. This year, Toledo returns nine of its 11 starters from a year ago, with seven of its nine goal scorers and 16 of its 27 goals coming back. UT returns four multi-goal scorers from a season ago – forward Kaema Amachree (5 G, 2 A, 12 PTS), Olivia Dault (3 G, 4 A, 10 PTS), Brooklyn Whitehead (3 G, 0 A, 6 PTS) and Grace Turski (2 G, 5 A, 9 PTS). Toledo also returns several defensive starters including McKenna Schultz and Miranda Sullivan. Even with many returners, Toledo totals 15 newcomers in 2024 – 12 freshmen and three transfers. Among the transfers, the Rockets brought in Goalkeeper Agnes Stenlund (Niagara), grad student defender Tori Lyncha (Xavier) and graduate student defender Dalaney Ranallo (Kent State). The Rockets face a competitive schedule in 2024, including a home matchup against Cincinnati and two Chicago road trips to Northwestern and Loyola Chicago. UT will also take on IU Indy, Detroit Mercy and Oakland, all from the Horizon League in non-conference play.
9. Miami RedHawks
One of just six MAC programs to win at least five conference matches a year ago, the RedHawks enter the fall of 2024 looking to build on the momentum from a four-match win streak to end the 2023 campaign.
Miami returns plenty of production from last season, including leading scorer Taylor Hamlett (five goals and two assists in 2023). The Red and White also welcome a talented collection of newcomers (eight freshmen and six transfers), highlighted by fifth-year defender Jamie Hlebec (a SoCon All-Tournament Team pick each of the past two seasons at Mercer).
10. Eastern Michigan Eagles
Eastern Michigan begins a new era in 2024 as Head Coach Taylor Clarke enters his first season at the helm. Clarke inherits a talented group, which includes 2023 MAC Freshman of the Year Kate Robinson, whose seven assists led the MAC. Olivia Sipsock's 12 points tied the second-most points by a MAC freshman in 2023, only behind Robinson's 13. Robinson and Sipsock were the first Eastern duo to be named All-MAC Freshman Team since 2011. Also returning is Meagan Lukowski, who matched Sipsock's five goals as a team high in 2023.
In all, the Eagles, which are sitting on 249 all-time wins, return 27 players from their 2023 roster, the third-most returners in the nation. The Eastern schedule features Clarke's debut against Oakland at Scicluna Field, Aug. 15, as well as a Big 12 battle at the University of Cincinnati, Sept. 1. The Eagles will look to qualify for postseason play for the first time since 2019.
11. Akron Zips
The Zips under the leadership of third-year head coach Jen Simonetti return nine starters in 2024, including senior team captains Morgan Pentz (Broadview Heights, Ohio) and Katie Stafford (Gahanna, Ohio). Akron also welcomes back senior Ella Hadley (Concord, Ohio), junior Emma King (Akron, Ohio) and sophomores Sara Bower (Cincinnati, Ohio), Hannah Langstaff (Washington, Ill.), Jordanne Oberhaus (Wadsworth, Ohio), Anna Simmons (Manassas, Va.) and Rachel Wenzel (Akron, Ohio).
The Zips will also be bolstered by the return of senior goalkeeper Penelope Cuirinier (Mionnay, France).
12. Central Michigan Chippewas
The Chippewas return 24 from the 2023 campaign led including 34 of the team's 42 points and eight of 10 players to log at least nine starts. Goalkeeper Allison LaPoint (Royal Oak, Mich. / Shrine Catholic), midfielders Claudia Muessig (Paw Paw, Mich. / Paw Paw) and Jocelin Zimmerer (Evergreen, Colo. / Evergreen) and forwards Jenna Little (Portage, Mich. / Central) and Jaelyn Dobrowolski (Traverse City, Mich. / West)—all seniors—will lead the charge along with junior center back Lily Wilson (McCordsville, Ind. / McCordsville).
LaPoint finished the 2023 campaign tied for fourth all-time at CMU with 84 saves on the season and is poised to be the program's sixth to eclipse 200 saves in her career as she enters 2024 with 187 career stops. She started all but the season opener in 2023 after missing the entire 2022 season due to injury.
The midfield duo of Muessig and Zimmerer represented three goals and six assists in 2023 and were two-thirds of CMU's most stable position group by starting lineups alongside Megan Scholten, who graduated last season. The two seniors were part of a 12-player incoming transfer class ahead of 2023, and combined for 30 starts, with Muessig starting all 16 contests.
