Feature photo by Paige Mast
Story by Jacob Burgess
Middle Tennessee State University women’s soccer wrapped up the 2024 season making the Conference USA playoffs, before falling in the second round to eventual conference champions, Florida International University.
MTSU finished 8-10-1 and 5-4 in conference play, the first winning conference season since 2021. The Blue Raiders handled injuries and lineup changes with experience to win when it mattered most. MTSU struggled in the regular season with holding a lead and closing games out.
“We had a shaky start in the sense that we weren’t able to manage ourselves in game, so we gave up a lot of late goals and we had a couple injuries along the way,” head coach Aston Rhoden said. “I think overall we stuck to our beliefs and in terms of the way of the way we play.”
The Good
MTSU’s starting lineup for the majority of the year was the oldest it’s been since 2019. The Blue Raiders lineup had eight starters that were juniors or above with freshman Demi Gronauer, Lexi Dendis and sophomore Risui Arasaki the only underclassmen.
I think that this year we really saw our chemistry on the field come together,” defender Lauren Spaanstra said. “In years past we sometimes found that we were playing as 11 individuals and this year we were able to play as a group.”
Many of the starters for Middle Tennessee have played meaningful minutes since being freshman. Junior midfielder Megan Carroll played over 1000 minutes as a freshman and broke 1200 minutes this year. Every returning starter followed the model of increased minutes this year.
Rhoden’s lineup was the most consistent it has been since the start of the decade. Defender Emma Brown played 1725 minutes, all but five minutes of the season, the most on the team. From the starters Arasaki played the fewest with 688 minutes, an average of 38 minutes per game.
The experience came to show when forward Emma Pettersen picked up a season ending injury six games into the campaign. Pettersen played the F in the above diagram.
“I think the team handled it pretty well, the first games were not easy because Emma and I are different players at that position,” midfielder Manon Lebargy said. “I think they understood pretty quickly that I was not the type of 9 who will run behind, but I am more that false 9 that will drop or play one touch back to then find the wingers.”
With a single F, Pettersen played facing her teammates a lot, looking to play it to any of the midfielders (M), with turning towards goal as a secondary option. Rhoden, after the injury, moved Lebargy to the F position for the remainder of the season.
Lebargy as the F a spot in the middle trio of Ms opened. Before Pettersen’s injury the other central M and MD spots were split between Carroll, Arasaki and Hannah Murphy. After the trio became the starting midfield group for the rest of the season.
The Bad
Six of the losses in the season were a one score game where MTSU either led or was tied at some point in the game. MTSU gave up a goal in the last 10 minutes in four of those six losses costing standing points with losses to New Mexico State, Sam Houston and Liberty in conference.
Having the right players who have gone through the ups and downs, them having the right mindset helped in the tough moments, Rhoden said.
“Our desire to win becomes greater than our fear of losing,” Rhoden said. “Once we kept that mindset it was easy for us to stay in games and compete to win games.”
If MTSU tied in any of those situations they would have moved up in the C-USA standings and if they tied in all three losses, then they would have finished tied for second place.
The Playoffs
The Blue Raiders turned around and learned from not being able to hold a tie in the first round of the conference tournament. Faced against Sam Houston State, who MTSU had played just two weeks before, the game went to penalties.
MTSU won 4-2 with Gronauer making a save and Lebargy scoring the final goal to clinch the win.
The realization that the regular season, come tournament time didn’t matter and the playoffs are that a massive raise in intensity to win, Spaanstra said.
The Future
The Blue Raiders 2025 season is going to have more questions than answers going into it. Lebargy and Dendis along with four other players have entered the transfer portal in hopes of playing at a higher level or more playing time.
Lebargy, the C-USA midfielder of the year and first team all-conference, scored her career high with 13 goals on the season as she looks to move before her senior year. Dendis, C-USA freshman of the year and all-freshman team selection, looks to not wait around and try to move after only one season in Murfreesboro.
With one season left, the goal is to play at the highest level possible and it was a tough decision but the best choice for the future, Lebargy said.
Backup goalie Calais Butts, defenders Dylan Barnes and Allie Draper and forward Arianna Kinsley have entered the portal also seemingly in hopes of more playing time.
Gronauer took over in net for the Blue Raiders as a freshman, locking up the position for the time being. MTSU signed recruit Ella Sellers for the upcoming 2025 season, putting four goalkeepers on the roster until Butts entered the portal.
The rest of the portal entries seemed to have a chance of more playing time in 2025 for the Blue Raiders. There will be two open spots on the backline that fit Barnes and Draper. Barnes an outside back would have the opportunity to compete for the spot left by Spaanstra graduating. Draper in the same boat to compete for the open center back spot left by Sascha Neilsen.
Injuries will play a part for the Middle Tennessee in 2025 even though the season has not started yet.
Pettersen’s recovery continues through the offseason, and she will be joined by Arasaki and Carroll. Arasaki tore her ACL against Sam Houston in the first round of the playoffs. Carroll injured a ligament against FIU in the second round of the playoffs.
Rhoden enters his 24th season as MTSU head coach in 2025 with no signs of slowing down. The focus is taking each day at time, building the program to where we want to be and the plan for coaching is to do it for as long as possible Rhoden said.
C-USA adds two new teams in Delaware and Missouri State for 2025 increasing the field to 12 teams. The conference has yet to determine how many conference games will be played or how the conference tournament operates.
Currently MTSU plays every conference opponent, but next year means 11of roughly 18-20 regular season games will be conference opponents. The tournament this year had the top six teams participate, and if the current bracket is kept then half of the conference is left out of the tournament.
Jacob Burgess is the lead sports reporter for MTSU Sidelines
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