Women's Soccer Looking For More After Strong Fall Campaign
By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media
WALESKA, Ga. – Women's soccer wrapped up one of its most successful fall seasons in history in 2020 and isn't done yet.
The Eagles – who are 12-1 overall and 12-1 within the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) – are currently riding a 12-match winning streak after falling, 2-1, to Truett McConnell (Ga.) in overtime at Ken White Field at University Stadium on Sept. 23.
In fact, the hometown squad was able to jump out on top in the first half compliments of Brianna Smotherman's goal in the 14th minute, but couldn't take advantage of scoring opportunities as the Bears tied the matchup at 47:31 and then were victorious at 98:38.
Reinhardt, however, learned from that experience and put its best foot forward the rest of the campaign; now it has its sights set on bigger goals in the spring.
"We had a truly outstanding fall season, and our team cannot wait to start the spring season and pursue a conference tournament and national championship," head coach Andy Kaplan said. "The expertise and hard work of coaches Chris Hall and Zach Schultze were key ingredients to the team's success. I am so proud of our team. They worked incredibly hard and brought passion and joy to all of our games and practices. I believe this is the most high-powered offensive attack we have ever had at Reinhardt. Our team truly embraced our system of everyone having attacking and defensive responsibilities.
"There is no question this is the deepest team we have ever had, with over 22 players positively contributing to our success. Our group never let the challenges of COVID get in the way of reaching the goals that we set for our team. Personally, this was one of the most enjoyable coaching experiences I have had in my 30-year career."
The club scored 58 goals, which led the AAC, and was fourth in the nation behind just Keiser (Fla.), Marian (Ind.) and Central Methodist (Mo.) (came to a 4.46 goal-per-contest average; 8th in the NAIA)).
Individually, the Eagles had five players finish in the top 10 in the AAC in goals, led by Jasmine Usher's 12 scores and Smotherman's 10 netted shots.
Caroline Johnson earned 12 victories in-net and paced a defense that allowed .62 goals a match – which is good for second in the league.
For her efforts, Johnson was tabbed AAC Defensive Player of the Week twice in the fall. Conversely, Smotherman earned AAC Offensive Player of the Week once.
Women's soccer was unable to conclude its regular season and host the championship tournament in the fall. The sport will follow these return-to-play guidelines:
- Women's soccer is allowed to resume practicing on Feb. 15.
- Teams may begin playing regular-season contests on March 4.
- Women's soccer is permitted to play four (4) matches against conference and/or non-conference opponents between March 4 and April 17. Teams must complete their conference schedule prior to the conference tournament.
The conference tournament will be limited to four teams participating. Each round will be hosted at the higher seed's home site with the semifinal matches being played between March 29-31 and the championship matches to be played between April 5-7.
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For more information on Reinhardt Women's Soccer, please click here.