SLU Women's Soccer Thread

[courtside]

On 7/6/2023 at 5:13 PM, courtside said:

2024 SLU Commit Audrey Smith was also named a United Soccer Coaches All American for the 2022-2023 season. 

Back to Back ECNL National Championships for Audrey Smith at U16 and U17 age groups. And, she had a big goal in the national quarterfinal game from her  left wing starting position. Her team didn’t lose a game for more than a year. League play, showcases, playoffs. Back to back undefeated league play,

…………

Strong regulation play, and 3 PK stops for Nimu Karani in a Kansas win (1-1 game) over Oklahoma in their annual All Star Game.

………..

 

[courtside]

On 6/21/2023 at 2:34 PM, courtside said:

Note:

SLU is still trying to finalize a game for Thursday September 7th.

SLU was originally supposed to play at Iowa August 27th. That has been changed to Kansas City in a return game. 

https://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29777-slu-womens-soccer-thread/&do=findComment&comment=759291

 

SLU has added a very good game, Wednesday Sept 6th, at Brown. 

The Bears have won 3 straight Ivy League Titles. They defeated Rutgers in last year’s NCAA Tourney, and they finished the season with an RPI of 22. 

[Cowboy II]

3 hours ago, courtside said:

SLU has added a very good game, Wednesday Sept 6th, at Brown. 

The Bears have won 3 straight Ivy League Titles. They defeated Rutgers in last year’s NCAA Tourney, and they finished the season with an RPI of 22. 

-I disagree that this is a very good game as it further exposes CKatie to the IVY League and her alma matter might get some ideas

[billikenfan05]

9 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-I disagree that this is a very good game as it further exposes CKatie to the IVY League and her alma matter might get some ideas

I am once again asking who CKatie is and why you keep using this odd name?

[courtside]

SLU has a 2025 commitment from Ava Rademeyer.

Ava is a skilled, versatile, central defensive midfielder. Ava plays club ball with SLSG, and, she attends St. Dominic High School. She does not play high school soccer.

Ava helped her club team to a recent U17 ECNL National Championship in Virginia. It was their 2nd straight ECNL National Championship. They also won the U16 ECNL National Title last year. Back to Back National Titles, and, her team didn’t lose a game this past season, in league play, in showcase events, or in the playoffs. (2024 SLU commit Audrey Smith is one of her teammates)

Ava has played the past two Spring seasons on the SLSG Super Cup team with 2023 SLU commits Autumn Jackson and Alyssa Bockius.

 

 

 

 

[courtside]

On 5/14/2023 at 7:59 PM, courtside said:

SLU is adding Olivia “Liv” Layton. 

Liv is a recent Colorado State alum, where she played 4 seasons. She was a First Team All Mountain West Conference F/MF player. A skilled, left footed, central attacking player, Liv played in 61 games while at CSU, starting 43, where she led the team in several offensive categories. She also took many of their set pieces. 

Liv was a standout left back and wingback at SLSG in St. Louis as a youth player. She played club ball with several current and recent Billikens, including Miller, Houck, Lawler, Puricelli, etc….and Liv was a high school classmate with Emily Groak. While there, she was a 3 time First Team All State player, and a MAC All Star game participant. 

 

 

 

 

https://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29777-slu-womens-soccer-thread/page/55/#comment-757332

 

https://slubillikens.com/news/2023/7/24/womens-soccer-billikens-complete-2023-roster-with-addition-of-transfers-layton-luebbert.aspx

[thetorch]

I can't wait for the season to start. This program will be in the final four within the next 3 seasons.

[OkieBilliken]

SLU ranked #21 in the USC pre-season poll for a 20-2 team that returns most of their goals on the nations leading scoring team.   F that!!!  Ladies need to hang about 4 or 5 on BYU and get them ranked where they belong.  

[courtside]

25 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

SLU ranked #21 in the USC pre-season poll for a 20-2 team that returns most of their goals on the nations leading scoring team.   F that!!!  Ladies need to hang about 4 or 5 on BYU and get them ranked where they belong.  

Preseason United Soccer Coaches Poll is largely based on the previous season’s results.

You will notice the side by side comparison here:

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-women/

SLU was top 10 in 3 different polls, and top 10 RPI last season, as high as 4th in one poll and 8th in RPI. But they dropped a little bit in the polls when they lost in post season. 11th was the best poll after postseason.

As SLU wins games, it will improve its ranking. 

It’s good to be ranked, as it has value as a recruiting and marketing tool. When other schools sell their leagues against SLU in recruiting, and, they do this every day, SLU can sell winning, and results. It’s fine. 

As for BYU, in just the past 4 seasons, they finished NCAA Quarterfinals, NCAA 2nd Round, NCAA Championship Game, NCAA Sweet 16. They have one of the toughest places to play in the country, and they have high octane offensive teams. It will be a big challenge, but, that’s part of the fun, and it’s why you play the game.

 

 

 

 

 

[Billiken Rich]

4 hours ago, courtside said:

As SLU wins games, it will improve its ranking. 

It’s good to be ranked............

 

 

 

 

 

REALLY PROFESSOR?

 

I'm sorry.  I shouldn't comment but I just have to.........

[courtside]

On 8/2/2023 at 9:47 AM, wgstl said:

Absolutely not said, re-read.   They could stay, never forced off.  I said "look into" which means maybe explore and look to see if there's a better option for them.  

 

Also this came from a player. but I believe you more. 

If you are unsure, you can always ask. I’m only going to post a small percentage of information for various reasons. It was certainly misleading to many at best. I know this because I received a lot of messages about it, including some from recruits and their families. People can go back to May 1st in this thread and read your post and read the replies for themselves. 

Every year the SLU Women and Men’s Soccer teams will have transfers in and out. This happens at every school, in every sport, but less so at SLU Soccer.(Happy to discuss the Men’s roster construction in their thread.)

………….

I often post more about additions to a team than about those leaving. But I will post these here:

Lauren Spaete retired from soccer after her first semester at SLU. She transferred to Iowa State at that time.

Lauren Hiatt retired from soccer after her first semester at SLU. She transferred to the University of Tennessee at that time.

Hannah Smith transferred to Grand Canyon University this Summer. (She played Summer Ball with several current SLU players)

Taylor Krueger transferred to Seattle Pacific University this Summer. (She played Summer Ball in Portland.)

All of the rest of the Freshmen are still on the team.

…………..

As for incoming transfers, SLU checks the portal each semester, as any team would, to see if there is a player or two in it, of interest.  SLU targets very few players. They first targeted Izzy Luebbert at the end of the first semester. She stayed at Arkansas through the Spring before transferring to SLU after that.

SLU explored adding Liv Layton as a grad transfer to play one more year, at the end of 2nd semester. 

SLU had a prior relationship with both players.

…………

Non Freshmen departures: Liz Stureman medically retired from soccer in May of 2023.

8 graduating Seniors left the team from 2022. A few others stayed to use remaining eligibility.

11 new 2023 current Freshmen, and, 2 incoming transfers, a 2nd year and a 5th year.

SLU’s roster size will be 30 this season. And that is going to be a common number range moving forward for the roster, as it has been in recent seasons. It’s essential to have a 2nd 11 to win at the highest levels, and, to have increased competition for positions and play. 

SLU is also exploring adding an additional 2024 player at this time. This means they are in talks with a specific player, and, it may or may not happen. One player de-committed and committed elsewhere. SLU currently has 8 2024 commitments.

2025 has one commit thus far, with many more to come soon. August 1st kicked off official visit season for 2025 players. SLU has very roughly 90 targets, with initial focus on less than a third of those players. And within that group there are priority targets.

Chris Allen is the lead recruiter for SLU, and, he does the heavy lifting with SLU recruiting. Although, Katie Shields also does some of the recruiting herself, as well as in coordination with Chris. It’s a team effort. And, Jenna Bracken is a recent addition there. Many competitor schools have hired 3rd assistant coaches, under the new rule change, which allows for 3 assistants. These coaches were previously known as a Volunteer Assistant Coach. SLU still the Volunteer Assistant position, currently being filled by Cal McKee, whose focus is more on player development. 

All sincere posters are welcome here any time.

[Wendelprof]

Courtside,

As someone who grew watching Pat McBride and Carl Gentile play for SLU, but who now lives out of town, I greatly enjoy reading your soccer posts about both the men's and the women's teams.  I don't know the names, but your posts give me a sense of how the teams and the programs are faring.  I'm sure there are many other "out-of-town" readers who enjoy and appreciate the time and effort you put in to keep us informed.  Keep up the good work.

 

[courtside]

13 hours ago, Wendelprof said:

Courtside,

As someone who grew watching Pat McBride and Carl Gentile play for SLU, but who now lives out of town, I greatly enjoy reading your soccer posts about both the men's and the women's teams.  I don't know the names, but your posts give me a sense of how the teams and the programs are faring.  I'm sure there are many other "out-of-town" readers who enjoy and appreciate the time and effort you put in to keep us informed.  Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks, Wendelprof. Welcome to the Soccer threads. 

I don’t know your geography, but there are very likely opportunities in your geography to see either SLU Women or Men play, or committed and uncommitted SLU recruits as well. You can let me know here or send me a message and I can let you know when there are worthy games of note near you. It’s almost a 50 state, and International thing, these days, year round, Men and Women.

You mentioned Pat and Carl, who were of course two of the many great ones. Since you mentioned Carl Gentile, you’d possibly be interested to know that his son Vince, (Notre Dame) recently returned to St. Louis this Summer after several years in Cincinnati. Vince is a former SLU Women’s Soccer assistant, who also coached at Xavier. He was most recently the Technical Director of a Girls club team there. (Kings Hammer) 

Vince is part of the club soccer restructuring at St. Louis Scott Gallagher, where he was before in the past. I’m sure there are several others that you’d know, both in and out of St. Louis at various places around the country and internationally. 

Both SLU Soccer programs have worked effectively with strong leadership, to be in good competing positions nationally. And now finally some long overdue resources have been initiated as well. As long as the University supports new, and future endeavors, within the programs, in a wide range of areas, there is potential for big things for both programs. That will be essential to being competitive at the highest levels, moving forward. It’s more challenging for the Women’s program, because league affiliation matters more than in Men’s soccer.

The new soccer building, and new Champions Center, are good beginnings to this long term support.

Hopefully there will also be a new NWSL Women’s professional soccer team in St. Louis soon as well. SLU has had its first of many play in that league this season. 

 

[courtside]

SLU has a new 2024 commit, from Emily Fox, Deerfield, IL, in the Northern Chicago suburbs. 

Emily is a skilled and creative attacking midfielder, who plays club ball with Eclipse SC, and, high school ball with Deerfield High School. 

She is a time All State player with the IHSA, and, with Chicagoland Soccer. Emily has 73 goals in 3 high school seasons at Deerfield. (17, 27, 29) She is the all time points leader at Deerfield, and, she will become the all time goals and assists leader early in her Senior season. 

Emily helped lead her high school team to the 2022 State Championship game, and, the sectional finals in 2023. 

In club ball, Emily has played with Eclipse North SC and Eclipse SC in the Midwest Conference of the Elite Clubs National League, as well as Pegasus FC in USYS. She played Summer Ball with Chicago Dutch Lions in USL-W. 

[slufanskip]

8 hours ago, courtside said:

SLU has a new 2024 commit, from Emily Fox, Deerfield, IL, in the Northern Chicago suburbs. 

Emily is a skilled and creative attacking midfielder, who plays club ball with Eclipse SC, and, high school ball with Deerfield High School. 

She is a time All State player with the IHSA, and, with Chicagoland Soccer. Emily has 73 goals in 3 high school seasons at Deerfield. (17, 27, 29) She is the all time points leader at Deerfield, and, she will become the all time goals and assists leader early in her Senior season. 

Emily helped lead her high school team to the 2022 State Championship game, and, the sectional finals in 2023. 

In club ball, Emily has played with Eclipse North SC and Eclipse SC in the Midwest Conference of the Elite Clubs National League, as well as Pegasus FC in USYS. She played Summer Ball with Chicago Dutch Lions in USL-W. 

Starting RB for the USWNT. Hasn’t had a bad WC

[courtside]

SLU has a new 2025 commitment, Summer Fishel, from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Summer is one of the better two way central midfielders in the country for her class. She is a box to box, two way player, who can defend, tackle, hold, distribute, takes free kicks, gets forward creates, and finishes. 

While playing for FC Pride, Summer has been a 3 time, First Team, ECNL, All Conference player. (Ohio Valley Conference) She also plays Super Cup for FC Pride. Last season she chipped in 19 goals, helping lead Roncalli High School to the regional title Summer is also a hooper for Roncalli High School basketball. She will not be playing soccer this Fall after she picked up an injury during Summer playoffs. She will be back after the end of the year. 

 

 

[Lord Elrond]

Nice win for SLU, 4-0 over Lindenwood.  Looks like Coach Shields wanted to involve everyone, and did so. Each goalie got 30 minutes of playing time (Emily Puricelli got the start, Maddie Sibbing came in with 15 minutes left in the 1st half, and played the first 15 minutes of the second half, then Becca Wolterman played the final 30 minutes). There was an almost complete team substitution at around the 22 1/2 minute mark, with everyone but the goalie coming off and substitutes coming in for everyone else. For the second half there was some more mixing and matching among the midfielders, but the entire defensive side was subbed out at the 22 minute mark, which had to be planned. Starters were Emily Puricelli, Izzy Leubbert, Lyndsey Heckel, Sophia Stram, Katie Houck, Abby Miller, Hannah Larsen, Julia Simon, Anna Lawler, Hannah Sawyer, and Caroline Kelly. 
 

First goal was off a corner kick, I’m not sure who in the scrum in front of the net knocked it in (no PA announcer and they don’t put out box scores for exhibition games, so someone else will have to put in who scored it). Second and third goals were from Caroline Kelly, and the 4th by Jess Preusser.  First 3 goals came in the first 15 minutes, the fourth later in the first period.  I liked what I saw from both Julia Simon and Izzy Leubert, first chance I’ve had to see them play. The entire team really limited Lindenwood chances all game regardless of who was in. I didn’t see anyone play poorly, Every SLU player really hustled to the ball all game. Among the freshmen, Nina Preusser had a couple of good shots on goal and almost scored on one that bounced straight down from the crossbar, Jordan Gary and Ashley Koch had some good shots, Macy Lutz did well on defense from what I saw.

 

Final observation, I never realized that Hunter Stadium in Lindenwood was so perfectly placed on the landing pattern for Lambert Airport. Oh well, see everyone Saturday.

[Speyburn]

Anna Lawler scored the first goal.

[Lord Elrond]

5 hours ago, Speyburn said:

Anna Lawler scored the first goal.

Thanks!

[Pistol]

SLU WSOC got a second 2025 commitment this week, and I believe it is Ava Scorfina, a defender from Timberland HS and Lou Fusz Girls Academy '06. She was on campus for their camp back in June.

[courtside]

22 hours ago, Pistol said:

SLU WSOC got a second 2025 commitment this week, and I believe it is Ava Scorfina, a defender from Timberland HS and Lou Fusz Girls Academy '06. She was on campus for their camp back in June.

There’s no need to guess. If you want to know something, just ask. 

This is the 3rd commit to the 2025 class. You may want to delete your tweet here saying it’s the 2nd:

https://twitter.com/midtownmadpod/status/1689331397268283392?s=46&t=TsCCkuE48YmnkWfoKqc_Ng

SLU’s first 2025 commit didn’t tweet about it. 

………….

You also tweeted sarcastically to Stu Durando that you had a “representative” at the exhibition game, because he wasn’t there. It’s better than discussing a game you didn’t see. But if you were there, and you weren’t guessing, you’d know which committed and uncommitted recruits were at the game, and, which players recently committed. You also would have posted it on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/midtownmadpod/status/1689110007873175552?s=46&t=TsCCkuE48YmnkWfoKqc_Ng

Guessing, and copy/paste from the internet without reference, isn’t as effective of an information strategy as experiencing things first hand. No one is saying that you have to do the work and put in the time. But no one is forcing you to post these “shortcuts” as well.

Examples can also be very simple: An above poster here, for example, said he attended the exhibition game.(I was there too) Then he posted about what he saw and experienced first hand. That seems simple enough. Maybe start with that.

…………

 

[courtside]

SLU’s 3rd 2025 commitment, Ava Scorfina, is a 5’11 Center Back/Wing Back who plays for Lou Fusz 06 team and for the Lou Fusz High School Composite Team. She did not play high school soccer this year, after playing the previous season.

Ava is a high motor, high IQ, individual defender in space, who also gets forward, especially on the wing into the attack. Unique skill set. 

She helped her U17 club team to the Girls Academy National Quarterfinals this Summer. (had a win over Isa Moreno’s team in the round of 16) 

Ava also played on the Lou Fusz Composite team that played an independent schedule that included Jefferson Cup, Super Cup, and other showcase events.

SLU attended league play games, Lou Fusz training sessions, and the Adidas Midwest Elite Camp. 

Ava’s dad Tom, played high school ball (shortly after Kevin Kalish) for SLU alum Vince Drake, and he later played at what is now Missouri State. 

 

[Midtown Madness]

1 hour ago, courtside said:

There’s no need to guess. If you want to know something, just ask. 

This is the 3rd commit to the 2025 class. You may want to delete your tweet here saying it’s the 2nd:

https://twitter.com/midtownmadpod/status/1689331397268283392?s=46&t=TsCCkuE48YmnkWfoKqc_Ng

SLU’s first 2025 commit didn’t tweet about it. 

………….

You also tweeted sarcastically to Stu Durando that you had a “representative” at the exhibition game, because he wasn’t there. It’s better than discussing a game you didn’t see. But if you were there, and you weren’t guessing, you’d know which committed and uncommitted recruits were at the game, and, which players recently committed. You also would have posted it on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/midtownmadpod/status/1689110007873175552?s=46&t=TsCCkuE48YmnkWfoKqc_Ng

Guessing, and copy/paste from the internet without reference, isn’t as effective of an information strategy as experiencing things first hand. No one is saying that you have to do the work and put in the time. But no one is forcing you to post these “shortcuts” as well.

Examples can also be very simple: An above poster here, for example, said he attended the exhibition game.(I was there too) Then he posted about what he saw and experienced first hand. That seems simple enough. Maybe start with that.

…………

 

Congratulations on being completely wrong again. I was there, in fact, a member of the AD can confirm it. Wanna check with WestPineBills and Carter Chapley? They can confirm it too. Did you go searching for me? Do I need to get a restraining order? 

[courtside]

18 minutes ago, Midtown Madness said:

Congratulations on being completely wrong again. I was there, in fact, a member of the AD can confirm it. Did you go searching for me? Do I need to get a restraining order? 

Nice try to gaslight and distract. No one forced you to post here or tweet on twitter what you posted and tweeted. 

No one said you weren’t there. What I did say is that you were guessing. That’s what people do when they cut corners. That’s why you didn’t mention the recruits at the game or the commitment.’It’s also why you didn’t tweet about it. I said just ask next time, no need to guess. Guessing leads to mistakes, as you were shown. You did find the time to tweet at Stu that he wasn’t there and that you had a “representative” at the game. It would have been helpful if that dialed in “representative” tweeted or posted about the recruits at the game since they were tweeting Stu about it. 

 

 

 

 

[Midtown Madness]

6 minutes ago, courtside said:

Nice try to gaslight and distract. No one forced you to post here or tweet on twitter what you posted and tweeted. 

No one said you weren’t there. What I did say is that you were guessing. That’s what people do when they cut corners. That’s why you didn’t mention the recruits at the game or the commitment.’It’s also why you didn’t tweet about it. I said just ask next time, no need to guess. Guessing leads to mistakes, as you were shown. You did find the time to tweet at Stu that he wasn’t there and that you had a “representative” at the game. It would have been helpful if that dialed in “representative” tweeted or posted about the recruits at the game since they were tweeting Stu about it. 

 

 

 

 

Where am I gaslighting or distracting. You actively stated I wasn’t at the game. You keep telling people they can just ask you, can’t imagine why they wouldn’t want to…..