West Chester University’s women’s soccer team has dominated their competition thus far, jumping out to a 12–0 start with just two weeks left to go in the regular season.
On Wednesday, the Golden Rams hosted the Mansfield University Mounties at John A. Rockwell Field. Jacqueline Hug, junior forward from Unionville High School, opened up the scoring for West Chester in the 15th minute and the team never looked back. Maggie Lena, and Lauren Corless added to the scoring and led the Golden Rams to a decisive 3–0 victory. Hayley McGee recorded her eighth shutout of the year with another gritty performance. McGee has been a force in net this season, racking up 41 saves on 45 shots, good enough for a .911 save percentage. The senior goalkeeper has an overall record of 28–7 dating back to her freshman year in 2019, and has played a big role in West Chester’s success in recent years.
Kaitlynn Haughey, sophomore midfielder from Philadelphia, leads the Golden Rams in total scoring with five goals and five assists on the campaign. Since joining the team in 2021, Haughey has compiled an impressive statline of eleven goals and nine assists, including four game winners.
Faith Matter, a freshman from Middletown, is right behind Haughey in scoring, having contributed four goals and five assists on the campaign. Her best performance came on September 17th when she recorded two goals in a 5-–0 rout of Shepherd University. Matter leads a deep, talented freshman class that includes Jacqueline Fox, Mia Amen, Victoria Pungello and Bella Collier, the latter of whom will compete to hold down the net for years to come once McGee graduates.
The Golden Rams have made the playoffs eighteen years in a row, which is tied for the second longest streak in Division II soccer behind Franklin Pierce University, who have made it nineteen straight times, and figure to make it again after jumping out to a 10–2–1 record. Additionally, West Chester has made the Atlantic Region Tournament final three times in the last four years. So far, they have set themselves up in a good position to make a deep playoff run as they currently hold down the number 1 seed in the PSAC East division, with Bloomsburg on their heels in second place with an 11-–3 record. Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, and Shippensburg all round out the top 5 with records of 7-–3–3, 8–3–2, and 4–5–4 respectively.
Looking ahead, West Chester has four games left in the year before the postseason begins. This week they will travel to Shepherd University in Morgantown, West Virginia, before returning home for a Saturday matinee matchup against Kutztown. The following week, they will visit Millersville, before wrapping up the regular season on October 29th against East Stroudsburg. All of these games will have a big impact on how the PSAC standings look come November when the playoffs start.
For more information on the Golden Rams women’s soccer team including ticket sales, schedules, statistics and more, visit the West Chester Athletics website.
Erick Klambara is a fourth-year Media and Culture major with a minor in Journalism. EK924666@wcupa.edu