STATESBORO - Going into her final season, Georgia Southern senior women's soccer standout Carley Borgelt will put all the long hours she spent training with her sister into trying to make a run for a Sun Belt Championship for the Eagles.
Borgelt tied on her first pair of cleats at the young age of three, after seeing her older sister Sydney playing the sport Carley would once grow to love.
"She is two years older than me and when I saw her first playing I just wanted to follow in her footsteps," Borgelt said.
Growing up, Borgelt participated in her local swim team to stay in shape during her soccer offseasons.
Carley's soccer success came during high school after being a star player for the Buford Wolves in Northeast Atlanta.
Borgelt was a four-year starter for the Georgia powerhouse, earning three All-Region honors, including 2021 first team All-Region, as well as being named the 2022 6A Player of the Year.
Borgelt and the Wolves were able to make the Georgia final four in 2021 and the elite eight in 2022. She also played club for the GSA ENCL travel ball team and was ultimately able to help her team win the 2019 ENCL National Championship.
"We traveled to Virginia, California, Seattle, Oregon - all over the country," Borgelt said. "Our team wasn't supposed to win in the semifinals and finals, but we ended up doing it."
Georgia Southern quickly got word of this big time prospect and came calling.
"It was an easy decision to choose Georgia Southern, because my mom went here and I have always loved the small-town vibe Statesboro gave off," Borgelt said.
The senior team captain has been a vital player for Georgia Southern soccer over her four-year career. As a holding midfielder, she doesn't get the statistics that other players get, but Borgelt's two career goals were both game winners in games against Appalachian State and North Florida.
During her junior season, Borgelt was Ms. Consistent, being on the field almost every minute of the long season. She only missing 63 minutes of game time over 19 matches.
Two-thirds of the way through her final season, the program's active leader in matches played and matches started picked up right where she left off, having missed only two minutes of action all year through last Sunday's match at Troy.
Early in her collegiate career, Borgelt was able to do something most sisters dream of doing. In the Spring of 2023, she shared the pitch her older sister Sydney - who was the reason she picked up the sport in the first place.
"We had a spring game against Kennesaw State on my birthday and my whole family came," Borgelt said. "My coach put me on her the entire game and the way we were playing against each other, you would think it was a regular season game!"
That Spring game, which was just supposed to be a way to get ready for the upcoming Fall season, turned out to be one of the most competitive games Carley and Sydney had ever had.
"It made me think of all the times we would train together, and have competitions during it," Borgelt said.
Carley will soon join her older sister in the real world after graduation, where she is planning on putting her marketing degree to use, possibly in medical or sports sales.
Borgelt hopes to cap off her outstanding career for the Eagles by bringing home a Sun Belt Tournament Championship to the small town in southeast Georgia she has grown to call home.