By: Ryan Hilgemann, USD Sports Information
VERMILLION, S.D. – The 2018 South Dakota women's soccer season gets underway Thursday with a 4 p.m. kickoff against Wyoming. The contest will be the first under the direction of first-year head coach
Michael Thomas.
Thomas inherited a team returning seven starters and 16 letterwinners from last season. Among the returners are second-team all-Summit League selections
Taryn LaBree and
Kellee Willer. The duo co-led the Coyotes with three goals each last year, while Willer added three assists.
Willer is moving from the midfield into a striker position on a full-time basis, something that she played periodically in 2017.
"Kellee is doing a great job learning a new position," head coach
Michael Thomas said. "Up top (at forward) she brings an ability to hold the ball. We're proud of the work she has put in up there."
Other returning starters include
Cooper Thau,
Alexis Mitchell,
Makenzie Burmeister,
Tayler Karas and
Coral Suarez.
Courtney Stodola started eight games last year, just one shy of half the season.
Thau tallied a goal and an assist in her junior campaign while Mitchell ranked second on the team with nearly 1,200 minutes of action as a true freshman. Karas led the team with 1,306 minutes on the defensive line.
Suarez is part of a goalkeeping group that includes fellow senior
Parker Rytz, redshirt-freshman
Emma Harkleroad and true freshman
Hollyn Carlton. Suarez earned eight starts in net last season, stopping 49 shots and owning a 1.8 goals against average. Rytz ranks in the Coyotes career top-10 rankings in several categories including saves (107) and goals against average (1.88). Her 2016 season save percentage of .795 ranks seventh all-time.
Offensively,
Zoe Anderson returns for her senior campaign after making five starts a year ago. Anderson tallied a pair of goals and placed 60 percent of her shots on frame.
Another position change on the Coyotes roster is
Taylor Kelly moving from forward to defense. She played in 12 games a season ago but made a start in each exhibition contest this year.
"Taylor has been fantastic since I got here," Thomas said. "We keep throwing new things at her and she keeps adapting to them. In the past, she has been an attacking player and has made the adjustment for the team to become an outside defender.
"She still brings that attacking flair from the outside back position and it is really nice to see one of our local South Dakota kids come in and become a leader on the team."
Thomas brought in a recruiting class of 12 newcomers including a duo from South Dakota.
Lindsay Farrell of Sioux Falls and
Joana Zanin of Pierre each enter their first season with the team. Another freshman,
Kisa Omerovic, earned the start in the Coyotes final exhibition of the spring, tallying two goals.
Thursday's season opener is the first of nine home games on the 2018 schedule. After the contest with Wyoming, the Coyotes travel to Northern Iowa and Eastern Washington before returning to the home pitch on Aug. 26 hosting Chicago State.
"We've put in nine months of work," Thomas added. "The first thing we talked about when we got here was competing every day and competing every minute. We've put in a lot of work to get to this point and we're excited to go out and do just that."
Wyoming is coming off an 8-9-2 season including a 4-6-1 record in Mountain West Conference action. Brittney Stark led the Cowgirls with eight goals a season ago and earned all-newcomer honors from the MWC.
Cost of attendance to all Coyote home soccer games are $5 for adults and $3 for students. A free live video stream will be available at GoYotes.com.
