Lady Wolves Have High Expectations After Historic Season

WESSON - The 2022 season saw the Co-Lin Women's Soccer team make history on several fronts. The team finished with the best record in school history at 10-4-3. Additionally, the Lady Wolves were ranked for the first time in program history and topped it off by making the postseason for the first time ever. However, the Lady Wolves saw their season come to an end on the road in the first round of the Region 23 Tournament falling to the Lady Wildcats of Pearl River, 1-0. Coming off the best season in school history, head coach Tom Cosgrave says the Lady Wolves are ready for the new season to start.

"We are just excited to get back started and build off the foundation that we laid last year," said Cosgrave. "I think that we did a really good job of competing in the conference and putting our name and brand out there last season which got us nationally ranked which was a big deal for our program."

The 2023 Lady Wolves features a squad of 22 players with eight returning sophomores that have seen significant amounts of playing time on the pitch while there are 14 incoming freshmen. "We have a good group returning from last season, and we are excited about what the incoming freshmen bring to the table for us," said Cosgrave. "We are looking to see how everyone shapes up during our preseason camp, but we think that we are going to have a pretty good year."

Included in the eight returning sophomores is leading scorer Charlie Cooper (Corby, England), Lois Mattock (Halifax, England), Caroline Griffith (Brandon), Keely Marshall (Madison), Chloe Nash (Byram), Madison Crain (Brandon), Madi Cooley (Natchez), and Leyton Roberson (Brookhaven). "This core coming back is going to be great for us, starting with Charlie going forward on the attack, and I think that some of those girls that stepped up as freshmen last year are going to be even more important for us this year as the senior members of the team," added Cosgrave. "Keely and Chloe are two that we expect to step up and take things over on the backline for us."

"We have done a really good job recruiting for this past season and bringing in some new players that will help move us forward," said Cosgrave. "Lara Dorfel (Munich, Germany) is coming in to handle the goalkeeping duties while Emmi Cook (Chesterfield, England) and Siobhan Scott (Glasgow, Scotland) will also come in and help plug some holes for us this season. We have some of our local recruits like Avery Rankin (Brandon) and Kaylee Roth (Brandon) that we hope will be able to fill some minutes for us and build our depth past the starting eleven."

"We changed our schedule up this year and we are chasing some more of the bigger dogs in the NJCAA instead of the four-year schools to really test ourselves in non-conference play," stated Cosgrave. "In our conference every game is tough and demands that you bring your best play to win and there's no better way to prepare yourself for that than by playing some of the best teams in the country even if that means having to play away from our home field."

Cosgrave said the approach for the Lady Wolves will remain the same as it did for their historic 2022 season. "Ultimately our goal is to compete for the conference championship, but we have talked to the girls, just like we did last season, and told them that we have to take it one game at a time."

"I think that was one of the best things that we did last season was not looking toward the end but focusing on the task at hand in each game in front of them and the outcomes spoke for themselves in earning a playoff appearance and a national ranking," added Cosgrave. "We are hoping that same approach will have us in the playoffs and the added experience from last year will help us breakthrough and get beyond the first round."

The Lady Wolves start the season on the road in Memphis facing off against Southwest Tennessee Community College on Thursday, August 24.