TRAFFORD, Pa. (pacathletics.org) - Coming off their eighth league title in team history, the Grove City College women's soccer program was voted as the preseason favorite to repeat as the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) champion, according to the league's annual coaches' poll. This year's poll, voted on by the conference's 11 head coaches, was revealed Tuesday, along with the PAC's Players to Watch List. 

Head coach Melissa Lamie, who has 358 victories in her 31 seasons at the helm of the Grove City program, and the Wolverines collected eight first-place votes and 97 total points to secure the top spot in the preseason poll. 

Grove City won their first conference crown since 2019 a season ago. The Wolverines rolled to the top seed for the PAC Tournament by going 9-0-1 in the regular season and then posted two-goal victories over Waynesburg University (3-1) in the semifinals and Franciscan University (4-2) in the championship match to earn the title. The Wolverines, who would be eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on the road at No. 8 Case Western Reserve University, finished the season with a 14-5-1 overall record. 

Six-time PAC champion Westminster College, led by 22nd-year head coach Girish Thakar, pulled in second place in the preseason poll with a pair of first-place votes and 89 points. Saint Vincent College, helped by the final first-place vote, claimed third place with 79 points, while Washington & Jefferson College (69 points) and Waynesburg University (67) were closely bunched in fourth and fifth places, respectively.

Coming in sixth in the balloting was Allegheny College with 48 points, followed by the 2022 and 2023 PAC Tournament runner-up Franciscan University in seventh (45), Chatham University in eighth (40), Geneva College in ninth (38), Bethany College (22) and Thiel College (11).  

This season’s Players to Watch list features a total of 19 All-PAC players from last year, with six First Team selections back this season, as well as three from the Second Team and 10 Honorable Mention players. Highlighting the Players to Watch list is the 2023 PAC Player of the Year in Grove City senior midfielder Emma Herrmann (Hilton, N.Y./Paul V. Moore) and Westminster junior goalkeeper Morgan Murphy (Yardley, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie), the First Team All-PAC goalkeeper a season ago and the 2022 PAC Newcomer of the Year.

Herrmann was the 10th Grove City player to earn Player of the Year honors and first since Ruby Mattson in 2019, which was the last year the Wolverines won the PAC championship. She finished the year with PAC-highs in goals (20) and points (43) and second in game-winning goals with six. Herrmann's 20 goals last season rank No. 2 on Grove City's single-season scoring list, as did her 43 points. 

Herrmann was instrumental in the Wolverines capturing their eighth PAC title, as she had two goals and one assist in the PAC semifinal victory over Waynesburg and followed that with a pair of goals in the title match triumph over Franciscan. After notching nine total points in the tournament wins, Herrmann was named the PAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player and she would add to her award collection with First Team All-Region VII and Third Team All-America laurels from the United Soccer Coaches following the season.

In addition to her First Team All-PAC honor, Murphy also secured United Soccer Coaches First Team All-Region VII and Third Team All-America honors. She started all 18 matches for the Titans last season, going 13-4. Her .707 goals-against average (GAA) and .876 save percentage ranked second in the conference, while her 78 saves were fourth in the league. Murphy recorded three shutouts (four combined) last fall and has 10 career clean sheets. Her 0.70 career GAA ranks 23rd among active Division III leaders. 

The Players to Watch list also includes 26 members of the Fall 2023 PAC Academic Honor Roll, which recognizes student-athletes on varsity sports teams who earned a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.6 or higher on a 4.0 scale during their semester of competition.

The conference's regular season concludes Wednesday, October 30th with the six-team PAC Championship Tournament scheduled to get underway Saturday, Nov. 2. The title match is slated for Saturday, November 9th.
 

2024 PAC Women's Soccer Preseason Coaches' Poll (Predicted order of finish)
School (first-place votes)	Points	2023 record (conference)
1. Grove City College (8)	97	14-5-1 (9-0-1 PAC)
2. Westminster College (2)	89	14-4 (8-2 PAC)
3. Saint Vincent College (1)	79	10-4-4 (6-2-2 PAC)
4. Washington & Jefferson College	69	10-4-4 (5-2-3 PAC)
5. Waynesburg University	67	9-7-2 (5-3-2 PAC)
6. Allegheny College	48	6-10-1 (4-5-1 PAC)
7. Franciscan University	45	8-8-2 (5-4-1 PAC)
8. Chatham University	40	2-11-3 (1-8-1 PAC)
9. Geneva College	38	5-9-2 (4-5-1 PAC)
10. Bethany College	22	3-10-3 (2-8 PAC)
11. Thiel College	11	1-14-1 (0-10 PAC)

2024 PAC Women's Soccer Players to Watch
1=2023 1st Team All-PAC / 2=2nd Team All-PAC / HM = Honorable Mention

Allegheny College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Casey Bender	So.	F	Allentown, Pa./Emmaus
Karley Johnson	So.	D	Zionsville, Ind./Zionsville Community
Emma Miller	Sr.	F	Elyria, Ohio/Lake Ridge Academy
Katherine Surdykowski (HM)	So.	M	Chesterfield, NJ/Northern Burlington County Regional

 

Bethany College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Avallina Aurilio	So.	M/D	Niles, Ohio/Niles McKinley
Monica Bird Montilla	Jr.	F	McKinnon, Antigua/St. Anthony's Secondary
Ava Lee (HM)	Sr.	D	Huntington, W.Va./St. Joseph
Chloe Lee	So.	D	Huntington, W.Va./St. Joseph
Brooke Ohler	Jr.	D	Wellsburg, W.Va./Brooke

 

Chatham University
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Ava Krepp	Sr.	F/M	New Wilmington, Pa./Wilmington

 

Franciscan University
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Abigail Parker	Jr.	D	Manitou Springs, Colo./Manitou Springs
Mary Wieszczek	Sr.	M	Scotch Plains, N.J./Mount St. Mary Academy
Anni Winogradoff	Sr.	M/F	Stormville, N.Y./Our Lady of Lourdes
Elise Winogradoff	So.	M	Stormville, N.Y./Our Lady of Lourdes

 

Geneva College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Olivia Anson	Sr.	M	Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown
Emily Garvin (HM)	Jr.	D	Danville, Pa./Northumberland Christian
Saige Musser (HM)	Sr.	F	Denver, Pa./Cocalico

 

Grove City College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Emma Herrmann (1)	Sr.	M	Hilton, N.Y./Paul V. Moore
Karly Keller (2)	Jr.	D	New Kensington, Pa./Kiski Area
Britta Lagerquist (1)	Sr.	F	Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel
Courtney Lisman (HM)	Sr.	GK	Mars, Pa./Mars

 

Saint Vincent College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Cori Bieber (2)	So.	D	Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown
Jude Galvin (HM)	Jr.	M	Reading, Pa./Governor Mifflin
Tanisha Grewal (1)	5th	M	Grantville, Pa./Eastern Lebanon
Emma Koller (1)	So.	F	Baltimore, Md./Eastern Tech
Olivia Toomey (1)	Jr.	D	Bethel Park, Pa./Bethel Park

   

Thiel College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Allie Kidder	Jr.	M	East Liverpool, Ohio/East Liverpool

   

Washington & Jefferson College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Skylar Bibbee	Sr.	F	Fairfax, Va./Chantilly
Sydney Hoover (HM)	Sr.	M	Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township

 

Waynesburg University
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Alexus Greenlief (HM)	So.	GK	Chester, W.Va./Oak Glen
Madey Hill	Grad.	M	Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown
Brooklyn Loveland	Sr.	F	New Cumberland, W.Va./Oak Glen
Reagan Mittendorf (HM)	Jr.	F/M	Bluffton, Ohio/Bluffton
Julz Mohrbacher (HM)	So.	F	Freedom, Pa./Freedom

 

Westminster College
Name	Yr.	Pos.	Hometown/High School
Allie Augustine	Sr.	F	Cortland, Ohio/Lakeview
Brooke Horvath (2)	Sr.	M	Pittsburgh, Pa./Franklin Regional
Gabby Hunter	Sr.	D	New Baltimore, Mich./Anchor Bay
Emma Maloberti	Jr.	M	Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley
Morgan Murphy (1)	Jr.	GK	Yardley, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie