Last season for the Lipscomb women’s soccer team, everything was in place for another ASUN conference championship–until it wasn’t.
The top-seeded Bisons went into the conference tournament last April needing just three wins to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year. Instead, they lost at the first time of asking to league-bottom Liberty and saw their season cut short.
This year, though, longtime head coach Kevin O’Brien’s squad looks more primed than ever for an NCAA appearance. An already experienced team returns most of its key contributors from last year, and that alone makes the Bisons formidable once again in 2021. Couple that with an ASUN Preseason joint-top ranking and four players on the Preseason All-Conference list, and the expectations become sky-high for Lipscomb’s women’s soccer program.
Luckily, there’s more than enough quality in the squad to live up to those expectations. Coach O’Brien’s Bisons bring back nearly all of last year’s starters, with the notable exceptions of long-serving goalkeeper Melissa Gray and starting defenders Audrey Ann Beck and Kaitlin Echols.
Gray spent five years with the program and started for the past two seasons, but her successors are equally capable. Our prediction for who puts on the gloves is redshirt sophomore CJ Graham, but the Swannanoa, N.C. native has strong competition from redshirt freshman Sydney Jones of Castle Pines, Colo. In his ever-honest way, Coach O’Brien let on that even he was unsure of who would end up starting the season at goalkeeper.
“I told them early on, ‘Hey, this is the one position in our team that there’s a bit of a question mark.’ Whoever starts this year has not played a whole lot of college soccer, so for them to come out in exhibition [2-0 win over South Alabama on Aug. 9], it just breathes confidence into the rest of the team and the coaching staff. I feel maybe as comfortable as I ever have going into the season,” O’Brien said.
Last season, Graham got three starts and earned two clean sheets, while Jones appeared for just four minutes and earned one save in that match.
Despite the losses in defense, there shouldn’t be many issues on the backline this season. ASUN Defender of the Year Shelby Craft returns alongside third-year sophomore Katia Hanger at center back, a pairing that was hard to break down last season. Purdue transfer Ashley Witucki suffered what is likely to be a season-ending injury earlier in the preseason, so the right-back spot will likely be occupied by redshirt freshman Alivia Carapazza. The homeschooled Tarpon Springs, Fla. native appeared in eight matches last season, putting up a goal and an assist. Rounding out the backline is Logan McFadden, a highly touted recruit who made a full recovery from injury last season and started all 12 matches last year. Hailing from Indian Springs, Ala., the redshirt sophomore produced an assist and helped the backline to four clean sheets last year for Lipscomb.
O’Brien knows his defensive stable is full of capable players, but he sees the team sporting a standard four-back formation in defense. “We’ve got a plethora of lineups that we as a coaching staff talk through, and the possibilities are endless. The problem is, if we play with five in the back, it’s going to limit the numbers we play farther forward. I think we’re going to have a little more of an aggressive approach. Whether it’s a 4-3-3 where we’re trying to keep other teams locked in or a 4-4-2 where we have our wide players joining the forwards, I think we’re more in line that way.”
Meanwhile, the midfield lineup looks as strong as it ever has. Over the course of the season, there will likely be multiple switches between those two formations, but we feel the most likely shape for the Bisons to start is the 4-4-2. Redshirt juniors Kelli Beiler and Cami Rogers both started every single match for Lipscomb last year, and it would not be a surprise to see them do the same this fall. Beiler logged exactly 1,000 minutes last season and put away nine goals four of which were match-winners. The Mount Pleasant Mills, Pa. native and Penn State transfer led the team in scoring and was an All-ASUN First Team selection. Prattville, Ala.-born Rogers was second in goals scored on the team with five, adding two assists. The Auburn transfer peppered opposing goals all season long to the tune of 23 shots and 15 shots on target. Also figuring to get major minutes is Evee Reeder, a redshirt freshman from Roswell, Ga. Reeder only started once last year, but she appeared in all twelve matches for Lipscomb, tallying 325 minutes, two goals, an assist, seven shots, and five shots on goal. The ASUN All-Freshman selection should be in the immediate plans of Coach O’Brien, especially when the 4-3-3 is utilized.
Deciding who starts out wide could come down to a coin flip, with a variety of options on both wings for the Bisons. Georgia transfer Tori Wheeler appeared in all but one match last year and produced 16 shots to go along with an assist, so the Seattle, Wash.-based winger should be actively involved again in her sophomore year. We highly expect Emanuela Schurch to feature on the right side after the Swiss sophomore put in 616 minutes last year and produced two assists, 17 shots, and eight shots on target. Also, expect to see major minutes from New York’s Skye Baun and redshirt sophomore Kammy McGee of Collierville, Tenn. Versatile redshirt junior Emily Patti could also be involved in the mix in midfield, even though she’s listed as a defender. The Knoxville, Tenn. native started ten matches for the purple and gold and contributed on both sides of the ball, helping the team to two clean sheets as well as providing two assists and putting a shot on frame.
Up top, two players in particular are poised to shine. All-ASUN Second Team selection Molly Grant returns to her center forward position for a third straight year, as the redshirt freshman continues to earn starting minutes as she has since she stepped foot in Nashville. The Plainfield, Ill. representative started every match for the Bisons last year and delivered four goals and three assists. She let fly 30 times on the season and hit the target on 18 occasions, making her the most willing participant in Coach O’Brien’s attack. Alongside her this year for the first time is V.C.U. transfer Kale’a Perry, a prolific goalscorer with four years of eligibility for the Bisons. The striker from Waldorf, Md. originally committed to Maryland as a freshman, but landed with the Rams, spending her freshman year without seeing match action. As a high school prospect, Perry turned heads wherever she went, ranking #82 on IMG Academy’s Top #200 Prospects list in the country after scoring 97 goals in her senior season between her club and school teams. She has featured alongside Grant in the preseason and appears to be fully fit after a left foot stress fracture set her back in February.
A name to keep in mind for the long run in the season is Shadia Valenzuela. Hailing from Buenaventura in the Colombian province of Cali, Valenzuela is a freshman with loads of club and international experience. Prior to a serious injury in early 2019, the talented South American scored three goals for her childhood club and Colombian giant América de Cali at the top tier of Colombian soccer. She has also represented her country with her U17 and U20 national teams but hasn’t suited up for either América or the Colombian youth national team since 2019. Coach O’Brien is high on her potential but says she still needs to catch up to the fitness levels of the rest of the team after arriving in Nashville on Aug. 1.
Having goal-scoring threats is beneficial, but not a foolproof path to success; in such a low-scoring sport, much of a team’s success is rooted in their scoring strategy. Coach O’Brien is keenly aware of this, and his plans for putting the ball in the back of the net are to do exactly what his Bisons always have: commit numbers forward early and often.
“Both goals against South Alabama [2-0 exhibition win on Aug. 9] were in transition; that’s kind of our nature. It’s ‘get numbers behind’, ‘clog things up’, ‘win it’, and then be faster, be hungrier than the opponent. That style hasn’t changed in the past three years, but the personnel has. I think that goes back to how we recruit, kids that can be successful in that kind of system. The pieces are there again to score lots of goals.”
With a fierce battle for the goalkeeper spot, a heralded defensive unit, a dominant midfield, and an attack riddled with finishers, this Bisons team could have exactly the right mix to deliver a third ASUN Conference title in four years. That said, this year’s conference lineup is stronger than ever. “I think it’s the deepest, most talented, and will be the most competitive [ASUN Conference season],” said O’Brien. “The new teams add a wonderful new flavor and add more competition to the conference. Four or five years ago, it was a two-, three-horse race. Now, it’s a six- or seven-horse race, and who’s going to take it is yet to be seen. We think we’ve got a team that’s capable of being in the conversation.”
The season starts in full for Lipscomb when they host S.E.C. rivals Mississippi State at 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19 at Lipscomb Soccer Complex. Also on the agenda at home are cross-country sister school Pepperdine at 6 p.m. on Sep. 2, in-city powerhouse Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. on Sep. 9, and Liberty on Sep. 30, the conference opener, rivalry game, and grudge match from last year’s playoff all in one.
Soccer is legendary for its fickle moments just as much as its beautiful ones, as Lipscomb fans know well. Whichever side of the coin the Bisons get this season, though, they have the talent to withstand whatever is thrown at them, and they know what it will take to make it to where they belong: the NCAA College Cup.
Photo via Lipscomb Athletics