Middle Tennessee women’s soccer looks to answer plenty of questions with a 13 deep recruiting class going into the 2025 season.
Coming out of the 2024 season, the Blue Raiders seemed to be on the right track with a winning conference record for the first time since 2021. Then, leading scorer Manon Lebargy and Conference USA Freshman of the Year, Lexi Dendis transferred out.
In response to their departure, head coach Aston Rhoden and company welcomed transfer seniors Hannah Opie, Lexi Rabold and Luiza Junior dos Santos last weekend, with the rest of the incoming players joining in July when team practices begin on Aug. 1.
Spring rosters are now a lot smaller in college soccer, creating certain challenges for coaching staffs. Coaches must now focus on building a whole unit and seeing how many roles one player can fill instead of finding a player who fits a very specific role, Rhoden said.
“It’s the same approach to recruiting. The kids we recruit are not specialists, but they are kids who if they play as a center back can probably play as a defensive mid, an outside back can also play as a wide forward,” Rhoden said.
Seven of the incoming freshmen came to MTSU this past weekend with their first chance to be around the team.
MTSU’s team chemistry was a common first impression amongst the newcomers.
“Coming here the coaching staff was reassuring and made it clear they wanted me here and my family to be involved,” incoming freshman Olivia Best said.
Bringing in 13 players to the existing roster of 17 players poses its challenges with such a short amount of time.
The new players will begin training in July and start working with the team and strength coach for a month before team practices, associate head coach Hannah Hoefs said.
With 17 players, there is a lack of depth, but the full 30 player roster will provide options.
The big question on the field though is who will provide a scoring threat. Lebargy scored 13 of the team’s 39 goals last season with Dendis adding four goals of her own.
Forward Emma Pettersen’s return should help fill the gap as she was on pace for nine goals on the season before her injury, scoring three goals in six games played.
“We are building the team to not one big superstar that we have rely on to score every game,” Hoefs said. “The team itself and how it’s developing, anybody on the day can win you a game.”
The Blue Raiders will have plenty of new faces that could end up being the reason for winning games in 2025, but the coaching staff won’t know for sure until August.
The 2025 class has done a great job of connecting with each other and now the goal is to connect them with the rest of the team to win games, Hoefs said.
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