It’s been a rollercoaster these past couple weeks for the Brockport Golden Eagles women’s soccer team. After finishing the regular season 14-1-1, the winningest record in program history, the season came to an abrupt end in the Empire 8 semifinals as the top-seeded Golden Eagles fell to No. 4 Nazareth, 7-6 on penalty kicks. That was until a Sunday night, when the women got a message that there was a chance to keep their season alive with a NCAA tournament bid.
“It was a very hard couple of days, it was almost like you were grieving something,” junior defender Lyndsey Miller said. “We knew there were slim chances of us getting into the tournament but receiving that text from Mike (head coach Mike Idland) on Sunday night, it kind of hit us. We sat in silence for a little bit like ‘Wow we might actually have a chance.”
The Golden Eagles didn’t want to get their hopes up too high, but when they realized that Brockport Athletics was setting up a place to watch the selection show as a team, reality started to sink in.
“We planned on watching it on our own, but when the athletics department set it up for us to watch at Eagle Lookout and made it a huge deal, that’s when it started hitting us, like wow we actually have a high chance of getting into this tournament,” Miller said.
On Monday Nov. 11, the NCAA held the selection show for who would earn a bid in the NCAA DIII tournament. The NCAA used AI to determine who deserved a bid into the tournament, basing it all off stats and numbers along with wins and losses, and taking the emotional human aspect out of the decision. The Golden Eagles historic season did not go unnoticed as they earned their spot in the tournament with a 15-1-2 record, Brockport’s first tournament bid since 2006 and second in school history.
“Once we heard that we had a chance to get in and we had a chance at a bid, there was a mentality shift,” junior goalkeeper Madeline McCrosson said. “It was time to move past that game, we don’t talk about it. We are looking forward now, you know it happened and for us it’s just a game on our record. It doesn’t affect how we go into the next game at all and we’re ready to move into this next part of the season.”
The Golden Eagles traveled to Scranton, Pennsylvania for the first-round matchup against Wesleyan college this past Saturday, Nov. 16. Brockport fell 4-1 to the Cardinals to officially end the Golden Eagles historic season.
Looking at this season compared to others, the Golden Eagles broke records and set new highs. First, Brockport had its best start in program history with a 10-0-1 start, and after taking a 2-0 loss to St. John Fisher, the Golden Eagles allowed only two goals the rest of the season. They set a new record for shutouts in a season with 14 and a new record for goals allowed in a season, four. Four is the fewest goals allowed ever in Brockport history and the first time the Golden Eagles allowed less than 10 goals in a season. The previous lowest was 10 back in 1995.
Miller led the way for Brockport defensively as she earned the honors of Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Year. Even though she was recognized for her individual performance, she credits her teammates for not only this accolade, but the season as a whole.
“I think as a unit, our numbers show, we only had four goals against, and I feel very honored to receive that award,” Miller said. “It is a team sport, and I think that’s something that needs to be recognized. You can’t do this as an individual, you have to do this as a team and I think again not to just look at stats, but we had over 50 goals for and only four against and I feel that’s very rare for how long our season was. Preseason, regular season and postseason I feel that’s a very impressive task we were able to do.”
The offense was complementary to the defense. Brockport led the Empire 8 in offensive statistics including goals (51), game winners (15), and points (134) while placing third in assists (32). Leading the way for the Golden Eagles was Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Year graduate forward Jaylah Cossin. Cossin led this offensive attack for the Golden Eagles with goals (11), assists (8), game winners (5) and total points (30) while also leading the Empire 8 in the goals, game winners, and points categories and landing fourth in assists.
It wasn’t only Cossin doing damage on the offensive end. Sophomore midfielder Amelia Breton netted eight goals and totaled 16 points on the year while junior midfielder Megan Gerber and sophomore forward McKenna Slate scored four goals apiece and nine points each.
The Golden Eagles also had a few new faces this year who made an impact. Sisters Sierra and Autumn Edwards transferred from Lemoyne College, along with junior midfielder Caitlin Nelson who transferred from Monroe Community College. The three were familiar with each other before joining forces at Brockport, playing high school soccer together at Hilton. Senior forward Sierra Edwards registered six goals and two assists for 14 points while Nelson tallied two goals and five assists for nine points and junior forward/midfielder Autumn Edwards tallied two and four assists to total eight points. The chemistry of this trio was in full effect throughout the season making the offense even better.
“We definitely work very well together,” Sierra Edwards said. “We have a lot of depth in the bench, if we had two players coming out, I knew there were another two good players coming in that can score and create opportunities. I love working with all of them, they’re all very fun to work with and I think we also have a lot of good chemistry together. With Caitlin (Nelson) coming from our high school and then at MCC for a year we definitely had chemistry there and as the season grew, we all had that chemistry to make those plays, score goals, and get those wins.”
Brockport women’s soccer head coach Mike Idland is in his eighth season at the helm for the Golden Eagles. Each season he has improved all the way to this 15-1-2 record where he and his coaching staff earned the Empire 8 award Coaching of the Year. Idland credits the players for not only this achievement, but for this historic season as a whole.
“There’s a really nicely balanced culture within the group,” Idland said. “We have seriously competitive personalities and characteristics within players as they play, but we also have a lot of fun out there and it gives us a great blend. It doesn’t show up on the scoreboard but our sideline culture, it’s the best I’ve ever seen in my life and that is led by the players and the personalities within the team. It makes an enormous difference in terms of results on the field and all of that has come together organically, it doesn’t happen through direction. As a coach, you’re fortunate to have a group like this maybe once in a career and that’s truly how I feel.”
In Brockport’s first season in the Empire 8, the Golden Eagles made a statement. There were 16 awards given out to the Golden Eagles in total. Here’s a list of them below:
It’s been a rollercoaster of a season for the women of the Brockport Golden Eagles, but there is no ride they would have rather gone on. The adrenaline keeps pumping as the Golden Eagles are already strapped in for the next rollercoaster, Season 42.
