The first-ever national champion soccer team from the SCIAC, the California Lutheran University Regals are unanimous favorites after sharing last season’s crown to claim sole possession of the conference title according to the 2024 SCIAC Women’s Soccer Preseason Poll, as voted by the league’s head coaches.
The Regals’ march last fall through the NCAA Championship as the first unranked team ever to claim the national title was the stuff of legend. CLU won every game by the slimmest of possible margins, surviving two penalty kick shootouts and winning the other four games by a single goal, including a trio of 1-0 shutout victories. They avenged their only defeat of the season, to the No. 18 Sagehens in the SCIAC Tournament final, before upsetting four more nationally ranked favorites in Hardin-Simmons University, No. 1 Christopher Newport University, Tufts University and No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis in the championship - all despite weathering a litany of injuries leading into and in the final match where three All-Conference players departed the field. Defensive Athlete of the Year Avery West was one of many leading the charge and will return alongside Second Team All-Conference selections Savana Durr and Adriana Maroney, who also made the First Team in 2022 when Logan Duford was a Second Team pick.
Winner of three of the past four Coaching Staff of the Year awards, Jen Scanlon welcomes back all five All-SCIAC honorees from last season, including Offensive Athlete of the Year Ella Endo, as well as another former two-time pick. The SCIAC Tournament #2 seed despite the highest goal difference in conference play with 31 scored against just four allowed, the Sagehens benefited from a tremendous debut in goal by Patricia DePalma, a conference-leading four game-winning goals from Eliana Prosnitz and exemplary transition play from Spencer Deutz - all worthy of First Team recognition last season. Vivian Rojas Collins also made her collegiate debut on the Second Team, where Amanda Khu appeared in both 2021 and 2022.
A third team with a bevy of returning All-SCIAC performers appears well above the rest of the pack at a full 20 points clear of fourth place in the poll. The All-SCIAC First Team trio of Kaitlyn Helfrich, Tori Holden and Annie McKinley is set to return, with Helfrich in position to become a rare four-time First Team selection. Second Team goalkeeper Sadie Brown was pivotal in the Athenas’ 711-minute shutout streak that overcame a 1-5-1 season start and will continue to benefit from another four former All-Conference choices in Emma Fogg (First Team, 2022), Ava Schmitt (Second Team, 2021), Riley Zitar (Second Team, 2022) and dual-sport star Cate Lewison (Second Team 2022) who was named Newcomer of the Year in both soccer and lacrosse for 2022-23.
In the first year of the SCIAC Tournament expansion to five teams, there is expected to be an extraordinarily tight battle for the final two qualifying positions. Chapman University (42 points), Occidental College (41) and Whittier College (40) are tabbed for the same order in which they finished the 2023 season, when the Panthers totaled 18 points to the Tigers’ 16 and Poets’ 15. Two-time First Team All-SCIAC forward Jenna Urrabazo continues to lead the line while fellow First Teamer Emma Harper returns for a graduate year marshaling a defense that surrendered just over a goal per game last season. Occidental struck gold with rookie Mia Steadman cracking the First Team and brings back 2021 First Team choice Gigi Yamamoto. Whittier also enjoyed a standout rookie season from Newcomer of the Year Madeline Traylor, whose older sister Layla Traylor could make her fourth All-SCIAC team alongside fellow Second Team selection Alanis Cervantes.
The only other rookie to earn All-Conference billing last season, Maren Handel returns for the University of La Verne which also continues to field Miranda McGarry, a 2021 Second Team pick. The University of Redlands tied the Leopards with 29 votes after both Sami Salinas and Shannon Stewart, last year’s saves leader in net, appeared on the All-SCIAC Second Team. Caltech’s Jennifer Solgaard will look to add to her career goals record for the seventh-year program after earning a Second Team nod as a junior.
The season begins on Friday, Aug. 30 with five teams seizing the first opportunity to play and all getting at least one game in over the opening weekend. The first conference matchup of the season in scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 14 with La Verne heading to Whittier for a 7 p.m. kickoff and the rest getting underway on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
2024 SCIAC Women’s Soccer Preseason Poll
1. California Lutheran, 81 points (9 first-place votes)
2. Pomona-Pitzer, 72 pts
3. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 62 pts
4. Chapman, 42 pts
5. Occidental, 41 pts
6. Whittier, 40 pts
7. La Verne, 29 pts
7. Redlands, 29 pts
9. Caltech, 9 pts
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