UWRF Women's Soccer has rollercoaster season

UWRF Women’s Soccer's fall season was a “rollercoaster,” according to team captains Aliviah McClinton and Madyson Shew. The team ended with an overall record of 6-8-4.

Madyson Shew is a fourth-year forward and center mid, and has been on the team since the fall of 2020. Aliviah McClinton is a fourth-year center mid and attacking mid, and has also been on the team since the fall of 2020. Both have been elected team captains by the team of 30 women. 

Team captains have many responsibilities, which include planning the fall team bonding activities for the preseason and throughout the season; communicating with the coach, Sean McKuras; figuring out practice plans if the weather isn’t good; relaying information to the team; and being leaders and good examples to the rest of the women.

“I feel like there are a lot of ups and downs," said McClinton of the season. We had some really good wins, like against Macalester.... They are regionally ranked; that was a good win for us. We won against St. Scholastica. We got the border battle trophy that we compete for every year, and, then obviously beating Stout. We had a really big win against Morris that was the highest amount of goals that have been scored in a game since 2005.... Then we had some lows.... With conference play we’d be up, and then we would get scored on, or like just losing games that we didn’t need to lose, even though we outplayed the other teams. So it's been a rollercoaster, I’d say."

Shew added, “I do feel like we've had a harder schedule this year than we have had in the past. [It's] been good for us to be able to compete with higher level teams than previous years. I think it helps our mindset and our work ethic going into conference play. I feel like, overall, our team dynamic has been way better this previous year than it has been in past seasons, which has helped a lot.”

The captains said this year's team had a large incoming freshman, group which helped the team mesh together and made the season more fun. “The environment and the chemistry among the girls have improved a lot. I think the overall culture of the team has improved, [which] would not have been able to be done without everyone on the team,” said McClinton.

The captains said that they have made extra effort to get the underclassmen and upperclassmen to come to team bonding activities, including playing video games on a Nintendo Wii. “I think we’ve also made an effort to get together outside of classes more than we have done in the past, and not just upperclassmen and underclassmen, it's been a mix of everyone encouraging everyone, regardless of what grade [they're] in, to come and hang out, just to chill,” said McClinton.

Shew recalled her fondest memory on the team, which was their win against UW Stout. “Having that moment where we are all just running to each other with so much happiness; we were just all so excited after that game.”

The captains have big goals for the upcoming season, already having identified things the team can work on. McClinton said, “Growing the mindset to be mentally tough so that when we do come up to conference next fall, we’ll be able to stay strong no matter what, if we are up or if we are down, so that we can start winning some games and going to playoffs.”