STATESBORO - Georgia Southern women's soccer has accomplished quite a bit over the last two seasons, making a run at a Sun Belt tournament title in 2021 and capturing the program's first regular season conference title in 2022.
The next logical step for Head Coach Chris Adams and the Eagles is to put it all together and combine regular season and postseason success into an NCAA berth, which is the goal for the 2023 campaign. That journey starts Thursday evening as Georgia Southern opens the regular season at UAB.
"Being in the big dance is the next step our program needs to take," Coach Adams said. "The regular season is all about putting yourself in a position to make a good run in the conference tournament. Making the NCAA tournament is our next goal. I'd like to win the conference tournament to get the automatic qualifier, but if we can't accomplish that, I think we could put ourselves in position for an at-large bid."
A Sun Belt Conference team has not earned an at-large berth since the league began sponsoring the sport in 2000. But after the additions to the league in 2022, the Sun Belt jumped up to 12th among all leagues in RPI and four teams, including the Eagles, were ranked in the Top 100 of the RPI at the end of the season, making an at-large berth a reasonable proposition. Of course, it all comes down to scheduling.
"Looking at last year, Texas State was a team that got the non-conference schedule right," Coach Adams said. "They were 7-1 coming in to play us when we tied them. They had really done well in non-conference, while we did so well in conference. If you combine what they did in the non-conference with what we did in conference, then that's an at-large bid in my mind. So that's how we scheduled this year. We're stretching ourselves playing the likes of Georgia and Miami, and even the Montana match - they've won their league many times."
A big factor in the Eagles' drive this season is returning experience - Georgia Southern returns 20 players and 10 of 11 starters from last season's squad that went 8-4-5 overall and 7-1-2 in Sun Belt play, setting defensive records with a stingy 0.71 GAA and six straight shutouts against league opponents. It's a tall task to ask the team to top that performance in 2023, but Coach Adams believes more consistency will help.
"I think you look at single performances," Coach Adams said. "It's not realistic for us to give up less goals than last year, but in the non-conference matches, we gave up too many goals early. I think we need to be consistent from the start. And we can do that by taking what we learned last year and carrying it over into this year."
While the Eagles succeeded in keeping opponents off the scoreboard, Georgia Southern tallied just 17 goals as a team last year. And even though all 17 of those goals return, Coach Adams knows that it's going to take more from his team offensively to get where they want to be in 2023.
"We're encouraging more risk-taking," Coach Adams said. "The fact that, two years ago, we drew 118 corner kicks, but drew just 69 last year. Not to mention that we didn't draw a single penalty kick all season as well. I think we played too much 'hot potato' in the final third. We're going to encourage taking players on 1v1 and taking accountability for goal scoring and creating chances."
Here's how the Eagle shake down position by position for the 2023 campaign.
DEFENDERS
The starting back line for the Eagles returns in 2023, led by 2022 Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year Sade Heinrichs (5-9, Sr., Monchengladbach, Germany). Heinrichs and her center back partner Megan Przybysz (5-5, 5th. , Ada, Mich.) combined to miss just 30 minutes of action last year and was a key part of the Eagles' record-setting defense. The outside backs also return a lot of experience in Kamryn Nobles (5-3, 5th, Augusta, Ga.), Isabel Kopp (5-3, 5th, Haarlem, The Netherlands), Maya Zovko (5-5, Sr., Waite Hill, Ohio) and Erin Wilkins (5-7, Soph., Tacoma, Wash.), all who started at times last year, along with Anna Wheatley (5-5, Soph., Madison, Miss.). The extremely deep group will be bolstered by the addition of Young Harris transfer Jhenesis Ellerbe (5-5, 5th, Powder Springs, Ga.) and freshman Liverpool FC product Caitlin Conroy (5-8, Fr., Warrington, England).
MIDFIELDERS
As deep as the defenders are for Coach Adams, the midfield group could be even deeper. Returning starters Smith Cathey (5-8, Jr., Madison, Ga.) and Ellie McIntyre (5-2, R-Soph., Buford, Ga.) will mix in with fellow returnees Anseligh Crenshaw (5-6, Jr., Savannah, Ga.), Carley Borgelt (5-5, Soph., Dacula, Ga.), Emma Armstrong (5-7, Soph., Cumming, Ga.) and Larsyn Reid (5-10, Jr., Flowery Branch, Ga.)
to give the Eagles plenty of depth and options in the midfield. Other players who could get into the mix in the midfield include defenders such as Ellerbe and Kopp, along with a trio of incoming freshmen in Meredith Pugh (5-5, Fr., Gulf Breeze, Fla.) Addison Comer (5-3, Fr., Jackson, Miss.) and Lauren Connelly (5-4, Fr., Roswell, Ga.).
FORWARDS
The group up top for the Eagles begins with two-time All-Sun Belt performer Elis Nemtsov (5-5, R-Jr., Bradford, Ontario), who led the team in goals scored in 2022 with seven. Faith Phillips (5-3, Sr., McDonough, Ga.) will look to get back to her stellar form after an injury cut short her junior campaign, while Simone Timm (5-5, Sr., Toronto, Ontario), Kyleigh Drew (5-4, R-Soph., Gainesville, Ga.), Bri Conley (5-3, Fr., Midland, Ga.) and Kendall Wilson (5-6, Fr., Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) also return from last year. The Eagles also get back Deborah Ruiz (5-10, R-Jr., Loganville, Ga.), who has missed the last two seasons with injury. Georgia Southern also adds a pair of freshman to the mix in Liverpool FC product Millie Perry (5-5, Fr., Warrington, England) and nearby Low Country product Gwenna Townsend (5-9, Fr., Bluffton, S.C.).
GOALKEEPERS
Second-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection Katie Oakley (5-3, Soph., Covington, Ga.) enjoyed a tremendous debut season for the Eagles, going 7-3-4 with an 0.79 GAA and 52 saves. Fellow sophomore Michaela Mikko (5-7, Soph., Newnan, Ga.) was able to see action in four matches in her debut campaign as well, giving up just one goal in 278 minutes of action and notching a pair of shutouts. The group also adds incoming freshman Quinn Wilson (5-5, Fr., Beaufort, S.C.) to give the Eagles even more competition in net.
THE FINAL WORD
Despite the regular season conference title and the record-setting defensive performance in 2022, the Eagles have been picked to finish fourth in the Sun Belt Conference preseason poll of the league's coaches. James Madison and South Alabama were tied as conference favorites in the poll, while Old Dominion was picked third, in front of the Eagles, who did garner a pair of first-place votes. Only two points separated the top three teams, which means the coaches believe it will be a dogfight to see which team can claim the title in 2023. Coach Adams and the Eagles feel that the success of the last two seasons and the bevy of returning experience set up well for the Eagles to put everything together and challenge for that NCAA postseason bid this year.
