UNCW Women’s Soccer poised for bounce back 2025 season

July 29, 2025

Colton Emswiler,

Uncw Wsoc3 — (Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WWAY) — You don’t need to remind the Seahawks what the last few years have been like.

UNCW women’s soccer hasn’t had a winning season since 2021. They also haven’t qualified or the NCAA tournament since 2015 or won their conference title since 2009.

However, they feel 2025 will be different.

Head Coach Chris Neal enters his eighth year at the helm. He says they’ve added several players through the transfer portal to bolster their roster with the goal of seeing immediate results.

Jumping into their first practice Tuesday, the program’s expectations are a step above what recent history has shown.

“They’re high, not going to lie,” Neal said. “We don’t have a lot of time to prepare. It’s a treadmill that’s already running on high speed when they get here. They showed up fit and that’s a great start. What we’re hoping to see at this point is answering questions. It’s about team bonding, it’s about team chemistry, it’s about answering as many questions as we can over the next month and a half before conference play starts. We can’t have any unanswered questions in mid-September.”

(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)

The Seahawks do have recent success as they finished atop the CAA’s regular season standings from 2020-21.

Junior Macy Lutz also hopes to see improvement on the field.

“I really want to have a shutout for our defense,” Lutz said. “I think that’s super important, going into every game with no goals in the back of the net. I think going into CAA and winning all of our games we can make it into the tournament.”

The group spent the entire summer together practicing to achieve their goals. Sophomore Ava Chuderewicz says she has seen the team click as a result.

(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)

“Honestly our team bond, our communication and our work ethic,” Chuderewicz said. “We all want it very bad. We want to work hard for each other and ourselves. I think that’s really going to help us, especially towards the end of the year when we’re all kind of tired. We’ll always be able to hold each other accountable.”

Junior Rachel Fry is anticipating a big year as well.

“So excited for so many things,” Fry said. “I would definitely just say I want to get my first collegiate goal. Also just playing with the new girls. I love to lead and I love the team so I’m very excited to play our first game.”