Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University women's soccer team officially released their roster for the upcoming 2023 campaign, announced today by head coach
Chris Shaw.
Headed back for another season in the Horizon League conference, the Colonials enter this new year with 13 new players to the team. Overall, the squad features lots of depth, totaling 31 players going into training camp.
"We're very excited about the group of student-athletes that we have assembled for the upcoming season," said Shaw. "The combination of returners and newcomers is the most talented group of players we've had at RMU during my time as coach."
RETURNERS
18 players from last year's team come back to the Colonials. Fans will remember the leading goal scorer,
Haleigh Finale, as she enters her senior season. In 2022, she led RMU in goals with five and points (12), and was one of three players to start and play in all 18 games.
Returning for one last ride, are graduate students
Kaoru Hayashi and
Kristi Kania. A native from Japan, Hayashi will be an important piece in the holding mid position for the Colonials for the upcoming tasks ahead. Missing the 2022 season due to injury, Hayashi, back in 2021, was second on the team in points with 10 (3g, 4a). In total, she has 26 points on her resume and a 2x Horizon League All-Conference Second Team member.
Kania, playing in her hometown of Moon Township, will bolster the backline for the Colonials as she has the past three seasons. She's played 43 games on defense since 2020, and has started in 41 of them with two assists.
Also, from Japan, is
Miyu Kojima. She'll be another anchor for RMU's midfield, as she starts up her senior year in 2023. In her first year with the Colonials last season, she appeared in 12 games, scoring one goal which was the game winner against La Roche University in a non-conference game.
For the Colonials, six sophomores from last season enter their junior years. Those six are:
Morgan Brustman,
Kassidy Fischer,
Alyssa Bell,
Emily Rocco,
Sophia Belcastro, and
Morgan Guelas.
Brustman will be one of the four goalies on the depth chart. She appeared in one game for the Colonials last season. From Kent, Ohio, Fischer brings experience to the center of the pitch with 14 games played under her belt. Across the past two seasons, she's posted one goal and two assists. Guelas, from Nevada, played in seven games, starting in two of them.
Continuing with the juniors are two defensemen. Rocco, a native of Upper St. Clair (the same high school assistant coach
Brianna Murgi attended), has appeared in 35 games and has started in 30 of them. Mainly playing outside back, she owns two goals including one game winning tally. Bell has played in nine games since her freshman year.
Sophia Belcastro, is the lone Canadian on the squad. Belcastro played in five games this past year, and earned playing time in the team's spring schedule of 2023.
Moving onto returners in their sophomore seasons are seven players. From Shaw's pipeline to Nevada, three more players from the western region are welcomed back to the roster:
Cali Laymon,
Taylor Day and
Elisa Corvalan.
Playing on defense,
Cali Laymon saw lots of playing time as a freshman last year, appearing and starting in 15 games adding one assist.
Applying more veteran presence to the midfield, Corvalan comes off a spring semester training with the Chilean national team. Last year she was third on the team in points with three goals and one helper. She saw action in all 18 games, and started 17. Day returns for her second year after playing in 11 games in 2022, scoring her first collegiate goal against Delaware State.
Following the sophomore class are some more homegrown players from the Pittsburgh area.
Emerson Johngarlo, out of Kiski, played in 14 games in last year's campaign, starting in seven. From Freedom, Pa.,
Renae Mohrbacher is coming off a successful first-year outing with the Colonials. In 2022, she led the team in assists with four, and scored her first career goal against Detroit Mercy.
Coming from Penn Trafford,
Malia Kearns was one of the other players running on the pitch for all 18 games and being in the starting XI for every game in the 2022 schedule. Kearns finished tied third on the team in points with two goals and three assists. Her consistent play earned her Horizon League All-Freshman Team honors.
Also, from the state,
Paloma Swankler out of Norwin high school was a crucial player for RMU off the bench last year. As a freshman she dressed for 17 matches, and recorded two goals and two assists, starting in four games up top.
Also, from the WPIAL realm,
Julie Heh after a year on RMU's club team, joins the D1 squad in her second year on campus. Heh was an All-WPIAL player in her years at Bethel Park high school.
Finally, finishing off the returning players is a midfielder,
Kaitlyn Nguyen from Lancaster, Pa. Nguyen played in two games last year.
TRANSFER PORTAL
After some work in the transfer portal, Shaw and his staff brought in five transfers.
All the way from Germany,
Lidia Nduka comes to RMU after playing at James Madison. Nduka is coming off a great senior year as she tallied six goals and four assists for JMU. She was named Offensive Player of the Week during the month of September, and received All-Tournament honors by the Sun Belt conference for scoring the game winning goal against Georgia State to advance to the conference final.
In net, the Colonials bring in another goalkeeper,
Brenna Murray from Raleigh, N.C. A transfer from UNC Charlotte, Murray earned the starting role last year, playing in 12 games and made 38 saves.
Playing defense and midfield,
Carson Bogan, transferring from UNC – Asheville joins the roster as well as
Maria Veiga, who attended North Hills high school, is transferring from Pitt Johnstown. Bogan is another player picked up from Upper Saint Clair, the alma mater of assistant coach
Brianna Murgi. And, after attending Kent State for a year, Jillian Marvin returns home to RMU, as she grew up in Peters Township.
CLASS OF 2027
For the 2023 season, the Colonials recruited a class of seven freshmen. All the way from California, Shaw spotted
Julia Becerra and Shauna Gramble.
Joining them are two goalies in
Hannah Robertson and
Deetya Satyal. Robertson arrives from down south, growing up in Ashburn, Va. Recruiting nationally, Satyal is coming all the way from Kathmandu, Nepal. In her home country, she played for Lalitpur Women's FC.
Keeping up with WPIAL talent, Shaw brought in two more local players.
Starting since her freshman year of high school at Yough,
McKenzie Pritts will wear a Colonials uniform for 2023. She was a standout player in Westmoreland County and a member of the Pittsburgh Hotspurs 05 G Blue soccer team. Just in her freshman season for Yough, she scored 25 goals with 12 helpers and as a sophomore scored 17. In her junior year she shot 26 into the back of the net, gathering All-WPIAL honors.
In addition,
Madi Jesih arrives from Gateway high school. In her four years playing in the WPIAL, Gateway played through her in the midfield as she was the captain playing in the holding midfield role. She also played for the Hotspurs Club soccer team.
And finally, finishing out the class of 2027,
Joey Tomlinson from Perkasie, Pa., 35 miles outside Philadelphia, is the last addition to the roster. In her senior year at Pennridge high school, she scored 10 goals and two assists, and led her team to win the PIAA Championship over Neshaminy.
"We can't wait to start getting the new players assimilated to our playing style and become familiar with their teammates," said Shaw. "I truly believe that this can be a special year for RMU women's soccer."
To view the full roster on the website, click
here.
RMU's season begins with hosting Duquesne in an exhibition match on August 9. The season opener begins on the road at VMI on August 17. After four non-conference games on the road, RMU hosts Indiana State on August 31 for the home opener. Horizon League action picks up in the middle of September.
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