ORLANDO – With head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak back for her 12th season at the helm after helping her team to a solid finish in their inaugural season of competition in the Big 12 Conference last season, the outlook looks bright for the 2024 UCF women’s soccer team.
“We’re looking forward to an awesome 2024 season—our second year in the Big 12,” Roberts Sahaydak said. “With a number of new teams entering the conference again this season, it will kind of be a new experience once again for us and we’re looking forward to it. The preseason has been going really well and we’re excited to officially get things going this week.”
The Knights, who will enter their second season in the Big 12 this fall, welcome back five starters from last year’s squad as well as 10 returning letterwinners. The Black and Gold will also mix in a total of 13 newcomers to the fold with six incoming transfers and seven true freshmen.
“We learned a lot last year. Even logistically, we went to a lot of new places that we’d never been and played in a lot of new stadiums for the first time,” Roberts Sahaydak added. “I thought that our team handled it well and did a good job of going into all those new environments for the first time. Competitively, the Big 12 was a lot stronger than the American Athletic Conference. We knew to expect that, and I thought that we were ready for it.”
The Black and Gold finished sixth in the Big 12 last season with a 10-7-1 overall record and a 5-4-1 conference clip. UCF picked up conference wins over Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, and drew with the league champion Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Knights then went on to defeat the third-seeded TCU Horned Frogs at the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Championship before falling to the second-seeded BYU Cougars in the tournament’s semifinal round.
With 16 teams in the Big 12 this year, UCF has been picked to finish sixth this season behind BYU, Texas Tech, TCU, Colorado, and Arizona State. The Knights are projected to finish ahead of West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Arizona, Utah, Cincinnati, Kansas, Houston, Iowa State and Kansas State. A trio of Knights earned Preseason All-Big 12 honors last week in senior forward Chloe Netzel, sophomore defender Jessica McCullen, and freshman forward Edidiong Etim.
UCF will open its 2024 campaign this Thursday, Aug. 15 at Florida Atlantic. The Knights will then host Utah Valley on Thursday, Aug. 22 for their home opener. The Black and Gold will then host No. 14 Georgia on Sept. 1 and will open conference play by welcoming Houston to town on Sept. 12. UCF will also host fellow Big 12 foes Arizona State (Sept. 22), Arizona (Oct. 10), TCU (Oct. 17), Oklahoma State (Oct. 20), and Cincinnati (Oct. 25).
“There’s a lot of newness to the conference again this year, but I don’t think it’s really about that. For us, we focus on ourselves, our standards and standards of excellence, and the way that we train every day. So that we’re prepared,” Roberts Sahaydak added. “We’ll do our best in scouting our opponents and preparing our team, but I think that we have laser focus on our team. We’ve got a great team this fall—one that our team is really excited about and what this team is capable of. Right now, we’re focused on us and we’re going to do the best that we can against whoever our opponent is.”
RETURNERS
The senior forward Netzel is UCF’s top returning scorer from a season ago, as she led the way in goals scored (7), points (17), and game-winning goals (4). She also finished second on the team in total shots (38) and shots on goal (21). Junior forward Mia Asenjo is next, as she tallied a trio of goals last year, along with three assists for nine points. Netzel and Asenjo are both returning starters for UCF along with senior defender Kyleigh Thelen, senior midfielder Annika Huhta, and sophomore defender McCullen. Thelen started 17 matches for the Black and Gold as a defender last season, while Huhta started seven matches in the middle, and McCullen started 11 games from the back line.
Fellow returning letterwinners for UCF this season include junior midfielder Polly Watson, sophomore midfielder Brooke Mulroney, sophomore forward Jalen Haas, sophomore defender Audrey Buck, and senior midfielder Jade Steele. Watson fronts the group as she played in 11 matches a season ago, while Haas appeared in eight, Mulroney six, and Buck and Steele played in five apiece.
The Knights also welcome back a handful of players who either redshirted or missed time due to injury last year in senior goalkeeper Lizah Pistorio, sophomore midfielders Daniella Chung and Maria Tregansin, and redshirt freshmen Natalia Ballinas (D), Lilly Nava (F), Genesis Perez Watson (GK), and Jada Silvest (D).