November 13, 2012

Winston-Salem, NC-The Salem College soccer team reached great heights in 2012. The team posted the 3rd highest winning percentage in school history at .842, just behind the 2007 and 2010 soccer teams. The Spirits were 16-3-1 overall and 9-1 in the Great South. They brought home the first Great South Regular Season Championship in school history.

"Winning the regular season championship was quite an achievement because a regionally respected side of Covenant College was in the mix in addition to the other tough teams in the conference," said Head Coach Jay Callahan.

The Spirits made it to their first GSAC Championship game, which they tied in regulation but fell in penalty kicks at Agnes Scott. The Spirits went 10-0 at home and 13-1-1 down the stretch.

Tarryn Bundy (West Deptford, NJ) became the 1st Salem College athlete to win Great South Freshmen of the Year honors. Callahan became the 1st coach to win GSAC Coach of the Year honors. The soccer team had a conference high 7 players on the all-conference team, a conference-high 3 players on the all-freshmen team, and a conference-high 12 players on the all-academic team.

Sawyer Ferguson (Billings, MT) broke the single season goal record (19), points record (45), and game-winning goal record (10). She finished the season 2nd in the entire nation with the 10 game-winning goals. Ferguson finished in 2nd in the GSAC Player of the Year voting even though she led the conference in almost every statistical category. Stephanie Hubbard (Sanford, NC) had another strong season, finishing in 3rd in GSAC Player of the Year, and captaining the defense to only allowing 15 goals against all season. Mackenzie Schmidt (Columbus, OH) led the conference with 11 assists.

Bundy, Ferguson, Hubbard, and Schmidt were joined on the all-conference team by Rachel Avsec (Chesapeake, VA), Nataly Mojica (Dallas, TX) and Taylor Norman (Springfield, VA). Avsec and Bundy were joined by Paige Ketchum (Jacksonville, NC) on the all-freshmen team. Ketchum and Hubbard each won the GSAC Player of the Week once and Ferguson won it twice.

The Spirits will lose 2 seniors Sabrina Thiel (Hillsboro, OH) and Kellie Younger (Manhattan Beach, CA), who were both captains. "We will really miss Sabrina and Kellie, but we have an excellent group coming back led by Steph (Hubbard) and Mac (Schmidt) that will be hungry after the bad taste that was left in our mouths to end the season," said Callahan.