UNC Women’s Soccer 2025-2026

[UltimateHeel]

I still can’t believe that happened - clock error, last second goal of corner, and 2 of our best seasoned veterans sailing balls over and wide in PK’s. Just nauseating. Really hate it for the girls.

Hopefully the majority of players will be back and Damon finds a way to get the girls to be more dangerous in final 3rd. Need more width, more dribbles around corner/endline with crosses into box, not everything through the middle.

Proud of the ladies, they fought hard.

 

[JohnnyYen]

I've been pretty critical of this team this year and I could write a very long post on a few issues. But since it's over, no sense in heaping on at this point. Objectively, it was a pretty good season and I think they did well getting this far into the tournament. If we use their worst performances as the bar, then losing in the third round on PK's was over-performing. They outplayed all 3 opponents, but this team wasn't going to make it to the cup. I saw some really good, young talent on the field this year that I hope we can retain. I also see some spots that need attention and I hope that those are addressed in the off-season. I don't think it'll take much to make this team a title contender.

 

[OBXheel81]

Corner kick was a comedy of errors. Faasse and Kennedy both left their assignments to drift centrally for no reason, resulting in a header by a stationary player to an opened corner. Kennedy was then slow in recovery, blocking the goalie from coming across and grabbing the rebound off the post. That will be a teaching video for next year. Every club team on up knows how you should cover that corner. We just had two players make bad momentary decisions. I felt the game was lost by our inability to finish up front, a problem we had shown most of the year. Still enjoyed the effort most of the game.

 

[JohnnyYen]

One (costly) mistake by Kennedy in an otherwise very solid performance that earned her a start in the second half. That was the best that I've seen from her all year.

 

[UNCBullMarket]

Corner kick was a comedy of errors. Faasse and Kennedy both left their assignments to drift centrally for no reason, resulting in a header by a stationary player to an opened corner. Kennedy was then slow in recovery, blocking the goalie from coming across and grabbing the rebound off the post. That will be a teaching video for next year. Every club team on up knows how you should cover that corner. We just had two players make bad momentary decisions. I felt the game was lost by our inability to finish up front, a problem we had shown most of the year. Still enjoyed the effort most of the game.

Kennedy was not supposed to be marking anyone, please see my post about this on the prior page. She was doing her job standing on the far post. She did exactly what she was coached to do. If anyone lost their mark on that play, it was Faasse. And I don’t even think she lost her mark as much as she misjudged the flight of the ball, and it turned out to be an absolutely perfectly placed cross and header.

 

[UNCBullMarket]

One (costly) mistake by Kennedy in an otherwise very solid performance that earned her a start in the second half. That was the best that I've seen from her all year.

AGAIN, Kennedy did exactly what she was coached to do…stand beside the back post. It was not her job to mark anyone. We also put a player on the near post who also doesn’t mark people. I (respectfully) think we have a lot of people on here throwing criticism that have little or no experience playing or coaching this game sometimes. I will happily criticize when it’s deserved, but singling out Kennedy for that corner kick goal is just flat out wrong. She was exactly where Damon coaches her to be and it’s not her job to track any other player, but to stand beside that post and hopefully deflect anything that the GK can’t reach…unfortunately the header was placed in the tiniest of windows. Faasse was who apparently should have been tracking that girl and she just tried to aggressively high-point the ball, misjudged it’s flight, and it went right over her head and was perfectly placed right on their back post attacker, who to her credit finished it.

There were 110 minutes (plus a shootout) of decisions that determined the outcome of that game. And that’s the danger when you concede a free kick around your goal at the end…sometimes the other team just makes a great play. I was more disappointed that we didn’t finish the game strongly with possession instead of bunkering in, and there was one or two players I won’t name that were loafing in that last minute or two that could have put more pressure on them defensively…we should have never given them the chance to take that corner kick to begin with. You do everything you can not to concede a free kick in your defensive third from a foul, or a corner kick when you are trying to close out a game. But we had so many chances to score another goal and just could not get it done. That’s way bigger of a reason for why we lost than anything that happened in the last minute.

 

[UNCBullMarket]

So does anyone know when players have to decide if they are staying or leaving (to go pro or to transfer)? I imagine it will be a while before we know now that there is no NWSL draft anymore, and those teams can pick up players any time they want. I remember it being pretty late when we found out Evelyn Shores wasn’t going to be back earlier this year.

We all know there are going to be moving pieces that we didn’t anticipate, that’s just the unfortunate reality for us fans these days as NIL offers will certainly come in from other schools and pro teams will also be on the prowl….when you have the talent we are fortunate to have, there will always be no shortage of suitors looking to poach them away. This is where Damon is really going to have to earn his money and sell these girls on the idea that they could be part of something special (that will ultimately raise their profiles) if they come back and form a title contending team.

 

[UNCH]

Getting rid of Anson hasn't made us a lot better. This season was worse than any year he produced.

Playing no bench players, riding our starters to the ground. Didn't make us play any prettier.

I don't even know what we're trying to accomplish. We don't play good possession soccer; we don't play good direct soccer.

 

[JohnnyYen]

AGAIN, Kennedy did exactly what she was coached to do…stand beside the back post. It was not her job to mark anyone. We also put a player on the near post who also doesn’t mark people. I (respectfully) think we have a lot of people on here throwing criticism that have little or no experience playing or coaching this game sometimes. I will happily criticize when it’s deserved, but singling out Kennedy for that corner kick goal is just flat out wrong. She was exactly where Damon coaches her to be and it’s not her job to track any other player, but to stand beside that post and hopefully deflect anything that the GK can’t reach…unfortunately the header was placed in the tiniest of windows. Faasse was who apparently should have been tracking that girl and she just tried to aggressively high-point the ball, misjudged it’s flight, and it went right over her head and was perfectly placed right on their back post attacker, who to her credit finished it.

There were 110 minutes (plus a shootout) of decisions that determined the outcome of that game. And that’s the danger when you concede a free kick around your goal at the end…sometimes the other team just makes a great play. I was more disappointed that we didn’t finish the game strongly with possession instead of bunkering in, and there was one or two players I won’t name that were loafing in that last minute or two that could have put more pressure on them defensively…we should have never given them the chance to take that corner kick to begin with. You do everything you can not to concede a free kick in your defensive third from a foul, or a corner kick when you are trying to close out a game. But we had so many chances to score another goal and just could not get it done. That’s way bigger of a reason for why we lost than anything that happened in the last minute.

ok.

 

[JohnnyYen]

 

[OBXheel81]

I doubt that Kennedy was coached to shift left away from the right post almost to the keeper position on that play. Bad mistake to allow a wide open back post, regardless of whether you are playing zone or W2W.

 

[bradarb08]

Getting rid of Anson hasn't made us a lot better. This season was worse than any year he produced.

Playing no bench players, riding our starters to the ground. Didn't make us play any prettier.

I don't even know what we're trying to accomplish. We don't play good possession soccer; we don't play good direct soccer.

We didn't "get rid" of Anson. He retired. His choice. Also, just being fair... we did have the most losses ever (by 1), but in 2021 we also didn't make the ACC Tournament and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament. So, I think you could argue the 2021 season (under Anson) was a worse year than this year since this team at least made it to the Sweet 16.

Also, respectfully, given the roster limits now (that did not exist when Anson was here) as well as no NWSL Draft and allowing NWSL to sign players at any time (that did not exist when Anson was here), you could argue that 2021 was worse than this year.

 

[Jriv23]

Well it does not matter now since we lost and our season is over. There is no mystery why those two players were loafing during that critical moment, they were tired and they needed a break. This year's team just did not have any depth. This was the problem the whole season. We had at least 8 players playing 90 minutes a game and at some point they are going to wear down as the season goes on. We had all agreed that Damon had little faith in our players who were on the bench. We also stated that those players were just not ready yet to play. IMO, we over achieved based on what Damon had to work with. We lost two key players after the summer who decided to go pro. There was little time to replace those two important pieces. We should have more depth next year with the recruits coming in. Hopefully all of the underclassman will come back and not transfer out. We must hope that the players that have signed won't go pro.

 

[UNCBullMarket]

I doubt that Kennedy was coached to shift left away from the right post almost to the keeper position on that play. Bad mistake to allow a wide open back post, regardless of whether you are playing zone or W2W.

Agree with that. She still wasn’t supposed to mark anyone and I pointed out in a prior post that her part of fault was not staying tight to the post caused her to get beat near post as you never get beat near post. Still she didn’t impede Johann from anything that was obvious watching the play. Johann had zero chance to get that ball. And Pennie was doing the same thing on the near post (although not drifting in quite as far), which does makes me wonder if this is how they’ve been coached to play the post defender roles. If you want your GK unimpeded, you can’t have post defenders a d you need to mark man-to-man. It is what it is…Kennedy is a true freshman, Johann didn’t even play for half of the season or more. Considering the amount of incredibly young/new players we had to rely on, things like this unfortunately can happen.

The other thing that sticks out to me is the TWO clearly unmarked TCU players on the back post, and seeing our two tallest players (Thomas / Mara) completely impeding each other in the middle. There was a lot of disorganization that took place there. This is why I have never liked total zone marking on corners. You need someone responsible for each opposing player running through and that clearly wasn’t the case here and there’s no reason for it on the last play of the game…literally everyone should be back to defend at that point. If anyone deserves blame, it’s our coaching staff…this is literally their only job, they spend almost every day with this team, have all of the video and training resources you could ask for….little details like being on your post and being organized on corners are things our team should be well versed in by the end of the season. But in fairness…you can coach your whole life and things still happen in the heat of the battle…it’s impossible to cover every contingency. It’s easy to criticize after the fact but anyone who has been in that role knows how humbling it can be. I go back to the fact that this was a 110 minute game and one play did not decide the game. We had plenty of chances to put it away and the blame should always be collectively shared by all. Learn from it and move on.

 

[OBXheel81]

Based on the current roster and incoming freshman, are there any player types that the staff should target in the transfer portal? I’d like to see two players with more size and aerial skills, one in the midfield and the other up front. But I think they have a good base if most come back.

 

[Jriv23]

I am in total agreement with you.

 

[3397char]

Based on the current roster and incoming freshman, are there any player types that the staff should target in the transfer portal? I’d like to see two players with more size and aerial skills, one in the midfield and the other up front. But I think they have a good base if most come back.

Roster limit is 28.

we had 27 on the roster last season after Shores went pro suddenly.

We have just 5 players we know have exhausted their eligibility by my count:

1. Faasse - key starter
2. Dellarose - key starter
3. Bretzer - f/Mf or 4th off bench, DNP in most games
4. Brown - defensive 2nd off bench, DNP in most games
5. Shorrock - GK DNP

so that is 6 spots open.

there are not too many players on this team with immediate pro clout, but we could lose somebody obviously.

we have 10 or 11 coming in, so we are already have 5 players that need to leave the team through attrition. I am not going to speculate at all, we will know soon enough.

I may have a math error somewhere above, but you get the point: that likely will give very little room for bringing in portal players. I don’t see any obvious holes on this teamm as if tight now, but that expected attrition could create some.


the recruiting class from the first post on this thread, currently ranked #1:

Player_Name	National_Ranking	Team_USA	Awards_Notable	Pos	High School	State	Club Team	Signed_LOI
Scottlyn Antonucci	PrepS #2 2024 TDS #7	U15, U16 (Captain), U17	ECNL A-A, ECNL SW Conf POY, NIL deals with Nike and Invisalign	F/MF	Rancho Cucamonga	CA	Legends FC	Yes
Maggie Currie		U17	PrepS #5 in CA, Cali-Hi regional POY, ECNL NorCal All-Conf, 2025 torn ACL?	MF/F	Leigh HS	CA	Mt View Los Altos	Yes
Leah Kuklick			PrepS #5 in NC, ECNL MidAtl All-Conf	F	N/A	NC	NC Courage	Yes
Ella Martinez	2023 TDS #31-60 "players to watch"	USA U16, Colombia U17	PrepS #4 in GA, ECNL SE All-Conf	MF	Marietta	GA	Concorde Fire, Tampa Bay Sun	Yes
Cali O'Neill	PrepS 2024 Top 20 player	U16, U17	PrepS #3 in NC, ECNL MidAtl All-Conf	D	Seaforth HS	NC	NC Courage youngest ever on their U23	Yes
Samantha Rich		U15, U17		F	Orinda	CA	Lamorinda	Yes
Wylie Roossien			United Soccer All-State	F	Phillips Andover	MA	FC Stars	Yes
Chloe Shroff				MF/D	Wilmington	NC	Wilmington Hammerheads
Deus Stanislaus	TDS #3 PrepS #6	U15 (Captain), U16, U17	ECNL A-A, PrepS #1 in NJ, ECNL NoAtl Conf POY, Gotham FC Youth training Camp	MF	Fort Wash	PA	PDA	Yes
Sealey Strawn	(ineligible)	U15, U19, U20	USL Super League Young POY, Player's Choice Young POY, Pro player for Dallas Trinity in Youth Prog	MF	Southlake Carroll HS	TX	FC Dallas, Solar Soccer	Yes
Peyton Trayer		U17	PrepS #4 in CA, ECNL SoCal All-Conf, Gotham FC Youth training Camp	GK	Santa Margarita	CA	Slammers FC HB Koge	Yes

*Note that 10 of the 21 player U-17 team were either already in college or on pro teams, and a few of others are HS juniors, so this is a really exclusive group: basically top 10 HS seniors. And Strawn is playing a level above.

 

[OBXheel81]

Thanks for the info! I didn’t know we had 10+ committed for next year. Roster management is tough!

 

[Jriv23]

Yes, it is. Roster management is very important.

 

[Nate1972]

TCU advances to the final four. In the last 2 years, 5 different ACC schools play in the College Cup. One school from the entire rest of the nation (TCU) makes it to the final weekend.

 

[OBXheel81]

Very similar script to how they beat us. Dominated by Vandy for much of the game, gave up a late goat, equalized very late on a set piece, then won on a PK in overtime. Some years, you are blessed by the soccer gods and things go your way. Hope they enjoy the ride.

 

[UNCAlum83]

 

[3397char]

Manning was in our 2027 commitments so this almost definitely means she reclassified. #16 in hers class according to top drawer

 

[THEericstrattonrushchairman]

I did not think tcu would advance.

 

[UNCH]

Never understood the JUCO GK signing, she's transferring.

 

[6string]

Never understood the JUCO GK signing, she's transferring.

Agree. That one looks like an evaluation miss.

 

[3397char]

Never understood the JUCO GK signing, she's transferring.

I assume we are talking about Maihs here?

seems like we had some goalie desperation last offseason. we never should have carried 4 goalies with roster limits going into effect. and we had 3 transfer in the same season. Crazy

I'm not sure if there was concern about a Johann injury or transfer or something? At a minimum Johann should have sufficed as an emergency goalie with two transfers in.

I believe Shorrock has graduated. Trayer is coming in to replace her in the freshman class. So we are down to three goalies now. We probably will not look to add here unless Brown or Johann leave.

 

[THEericstrattonrushchairman]

Dook lost to Stanford in the national semis .TOO BAD

 

[uncjhodges]

Dook lost to Stanford in the national semis .TOO BAD

TCU lost too, such a shame

 

[JCTarHeel]

Dook lost to Stanford in the national semis .TOO BAD

Now we just need the lolstate men to lose tonight and we'll be in the clear.

 

[JCTarHeel]

Welp, that didn't go well.

 

[THEericstrattonrushchairman]

FSU over Stanford 1-0 for the Natty

 

[Narrynedwards]

It's a bummer to see two homegrown talents - Taylor Suarez and Jaida McGrew - heavily involved in the FSU championship. Both from Charlotte.

 

[3397char]

Roster limit is 28.

we had 27 on the roster last season after Shores went pro suddenly.

We have just 5 players we know have exhausted their eligibility by my count:

1. Faasse - key starter
2. Dellarose - key starter
3. Bretzer - f/Mf or 4th off bench, DNP in most games
4. Brown - defensive 2nd off bench, DNP in most games
5. Shorrock - GK DNP

so that is 6 spots open.

there are not too many players on this team with immediate pro clout, but we could lose somebody obviously.

we have 10 or 11 coming in, so we are already have 5 players that need to leave the team through attrition. I am not going to speculate at all, we will know soon enough.

I may have a math error somewhere above, but you get the point: that likely will give very little room for bringing in portal players. I don’t see any obvious holes on this teamm as if tight now, but that expected attrition could create some.


the recruiting class from the first post on this thread, currently ranked #1:

Player_Name	National_Ranking	Team_USA	Awards_Notable	Pos	High School	State	Club Team	Signed_LOI
Scottlyn Antonucci	PrepS #2 2024 TDS #7	U15, U16 (Captain), U17	ECNL A-A, ECNL SW Conf POY, NIL deals with Nike and Invisalign	F/MF	Rancho Cucamonga	CA	Legends FC	Yes
Maggie Currie		U17	PrepS #5 in CA, Cali-Hi regional POY, ECNL NorCal All-Conf, 2025 torn ACL?	MF/F	Leigh HS	CA	Mt View Los Altos	Yes
Leah Kuklick			PrepS #5 in NC, ECNL MidAtl All-Conf	F	N/A	NC	NC Courage	Yes
Ella Martinez	2023 TDS #31-60 "players to watch"	USA U16, Colombia U17	PrepS #4 in GA, ECNL SE All-Conf	MF	Marietta	GA	Concorde Fire, Tampa Bay Sun	Yes
Cali O'Neill	PrepS 2024 Top 20 player	U16, U17	PrepS #3 in NC, ECNL MidAtl All-Conf	D	Seaforth HS	NC	NC Courage youngest ever on their U23	Yes
Samantha Rich		U15, U17		F	Orinda	CA	Lamorinda	Yes
Wylie Roossien			United Soccer All-State	F	Phillips Andover	MA	FC Stars	Yes
Chloe Shroff				MF/D	Wilmington	NC	Wilmington Hammerheads
Deus Stanislaus	TDS #3 PrepS #6	U15 (Captain), U16, U17	ECNL A-A, PrepS #1 in NJ, ECNL NoAtl Conf POY, Gotham FC Youth training Camp	MF	Fort Wash	PA	PDA	Yes
Sealey Strawn	(ineligible)	U15, U19, U20	USL Super League Young POY, Player's Choice Young POY, Pro player for Dallas Trinity in Youth Prog	MF	Southlake Carroll HS	TX	FC Dallas, Solar Soccer	Yes
Peyton Trayer		U17	PrepS #4 in CA, ECNL SoCal All-Conf, Gotham FC Youth training Camp	GK	Santa Margarita	CA	Slammers FC HB Koge	Yes

*Note that 10 of the 21 player U-17 team were either already in college or on pro teams, and a few of others are HS juniors, so this is a really exclusive group: basically top 10 HS seniors. And Strawn is playing a level above.

Apparently Bretzer has a grad year remaking, my mistake.
But looks like she is headed to Arizona for grad school

 

[bradarb08]

Do we know who all transferred out?

 

[Jriv23]

Good question?

 

[3397char]

Do we know who all transferred out?

There are rarely any official announcements until they "sign" elsewhere. So we just gather what we see on social media.

These have made Insta comments implying they are staying, and list UNC Women's soccer in their bio:

1. Bella Gaetino*
2. Hope Munson*
3. Caitlin Mara*

These still List UNC Women's soccer on their Insta bio but no notable statements of a return or transferring I see:

1. Bella Devey*
2. Ashley Pennie*
3. Aven Alvarez*~
4. Shaela Bradley*~
5. Hannah Johann*
6. Lauren Malsom*
7. Riley Kennedy^
8. Liya Brooks^
9. Logan Tongberg
10. Abby Gundry
11. Ella Smith (Insta is private) - Morehead-Cain scholarship makes her unlikely to transfer
12. Raegan Williams
13. Cammie Maynor (Insta has not been updated in 5 months)
14. Jenny Dearie (Insta has not been updated in over a year)

Have stated they are going pro:

1. Olivia Thomas
2. Linda Ullmark

Have stated Clearly they are graduated and gone:

1. Kate Faasse*
2. Tessa Dellarose*
3. Ryann Brown
4. Marisa Shorrock

Transfer Announcement:

1. Eden Bretzer - Arizona
2. Emile Maihs - Miami
3. Djem Koppelaar - Arizona State
4. Eres Freifeld^ - TCU

* Starter
~Out injured for the season
^key reserve

Transferes In:

1. Sr Def Izzi Stratton from BYU (2022 Freshman A-A, 2023 Top IX)
2. Sr MF Summer Denigan from UGA (2025 1st team A-A)
3. Sr MF Lilliah Blum from Utah (4 goals last year led her team)

So on paper we have 21 20 17 still here, 11-12 13-14 recruits/transfers coming in, so we still need 4-5 3-4 2-3 2-3 to leave to get to the roster limit of 28, plus any additional space for transfers in.

Transfer portal tracker here:

2026 Women's Division I Transfer Tracker | College Soccer

Keep track of the Women's Division I Mid-Year Transfers for the class of 2026.

www.topdrawersoccer.com

Note that for W Soccer the transfer portal opened on Nov 17th and actually closes tomorrow, Dec 16th. But that is just the date that you have to tell your Ath Dept to enter your name. The actual portal name entry can be up to 48 hours later. And while every university has access to whose names are in the portal it is treated as semi-confidential; no reporter nor fan can just get a list of who has portalled. Instead we wait for athletes to self-report entry, their new school, or for the new school to report who they signed. So final decisions can be up to the final spring drop-add date at the new, school. Also grad students can transfer at any time, and most wait until after they graduate.

 

[UltimateHeel]

There are rarely any official announcements until they "sign" elsewhere. So we just gather what we see on social media.

These have made Insta comments implying they are staying, and list UNC Women's soccer in their bio:

1. Bella Gaetino*
2. Hope Munson*
3. Caitlin Mara*

These still List UNC Women's soccer on their Insta bio but no notable statements of a return or transferring I see:

1. Olivia Thomas*
2. Linda Ullmark*
3. Bella Devey*
4. Ashley Pennie*
5. Aven Alvarez*~
6. Shaela Bradley*~
7. Hannah Johann*
8. Lauren Malsom*
9. Riley Kennedy^
10. Eres Friefeld^
11. Liya Brooks^
12. Djem Koppelaar
13. Logan Tongberg
14. Abby Gundry
15. Ella Smith (Insta is private)
16. Raegan Williams
17. Cammie Maynor (Insta has not been updated in 5 months)
18. Jenny Dearie (Insta has not been updated in over a year)

Have stated Clearly they are graduated and gone:

1. Kate Faasse*
2. Tessa Dellarose*
3. Ryann Brown
4. Marisa Shorrock

Transfer Announcement:

1. Eden Bretzer - Arizona
2. Emile Maihs - Miami

* Starter
~Out injured for the season
^key reserve

So on paper we have 21 still here, 11-12 recruits coming in, so we still need 4-5 to leave to get to the roster limit of 28, plus any additional space for transfers in.

Thanks for keeping us up to date! Really hope we keep the major contributors and build with freshmen.

 

[Jriv23]

I hope so too.

 

[Bricks]

Having Gaetino back is significant and hopefully an indication that Olivia will be back as well. Linda and Devey would also be among the top 4-5 contributors that I'd like to see back next year, but there was some online speculation that Linda's goal was to go pro after year 2. Add Pennie and Alvarez and there's a strong core of upper classman to lead the team next year.