Women's Soccer Thrilled to Open NCAA Tournament at Home

The road to the College Cup for women’s soccer begins on Friday for South Carolina at Stone Stadium. For the 12th consecutive season, head coach Shelley Smith has guided the program to the postseason as the Gamecocks will host East Carolina in Friday’s first round matchup after posting a 10-3-7 record and playing some of its best soccer late in the year, which included a run to the SEC Tournament Championship game, thanks to a 3-0 win over No. 2 ranked Mississippi State in the semifinals.

“I’m proud of what they’ve done this season,” said Smith, who eclipsed 350 career wins earlier this season and has her program ranked 14th nationally. “It’s not easy to make the NCAA Tournament. It’s not easy to make it to the championship of the SEC. I think we’re a team that no one really wants to play at this moment. We’re going to try to build on what we did last week. We know we can play with anyone in this field, we just have to make sure we bring the same energy.”

“It’s something you never take for granted, getting to host in the NCAA Tournament,” said Senior forward Cat Barry, who earned First Team All-SEC honors this year after leading the league with 16 goals and is one score away from tying the school record for career goals. “Every game at this point, I’m going to be so grateful to have. It’s special when you get to play in front of fans that support you so much like they do here in Columbia.”

As for the possibility of breaking the school career goal scoring record, Barry has different goals on her mind.

“It’s an honor to be mentioned with the players who are written throughout that record book,” Barry said. “That goal would mean more to me if it were a goal to advance us in the tournament. Hopefully, I can cash in at a time that makes a difference for our team, if I am going to do it. I’ve played with incredible players all five years that I’ve been here. None of that would happen without the players that surround me and my coaches that push me every day. My ultimate goal is to win some games and finish my time here with this team on a positive note and leave the program better than I found it.”

Having been to the NCAA Tournament every year during their career, the seniors are determined to make the most of their last opportunity and make a run toward the College Cup. After scoring seven goals in the first two games of the SEC Tournament, the Gamecocks hope to be peaking at the right time.

“I think it’s just about us believing again, knowing what we can do, and building off our last game,” said fifth year senior Brianna Behm, who scored her first two goals of the season in the win over Mississippi State in the SEC semifinal match. “I think we are at our best right now. From the beginning of the season, we’ve grown individually and together. We all buy-in to the same things. We all want to win. That’s all that matters.”

“We find confidence in knowing we played some of our best soccer during the course of those three games in the SEC Tournament and the stretch leading up to it,” Barry said. “For us, it’s just about continuing to believe in what we’re doing and what we’re capable of. This team is really unsatisfied with the taste that was left in our mouth from the result of the game (Sunday’s loss to Texas in SEC Championship), and we’re going to use that as motivation.”

The Gamecocks are one of 10 SEC schools to make the 64-team field, which means they are battle-tested having finished fourth in the SEC during the regular season.

“It shows the respect our league has,” Smith said. “We have a tough group of teams and have to play them week in and week out. I’m proud of our team and what they had to do throughout that conference season. Last week really helped us prepare. We saw a lot of different styles. We went through adversity. We had to recover quickly. We feel prepared. They don’t want to be done.”

Cat Barry