Women’s soccer: Dayton has high hopes as season begins Thursday

The 2025 team, which opens the season at 7 p.m. Thursday at Wright State, has a strong chance of continuing that trend.

“I think the team has a lot of potential,” Golz said Monday. “We return a lot from last year. We return really the central spine of our team with the goalkeeper and center backs and center mids and regain Karli Ferguson (a redshirt junior forward), who was out all year last year.

“It’s a group that has won a lot of games over the last four years and has a lot of talent. Now we’ve just got to get the chemistry and connections and build those as we navigate the non-conference portion of the season. It’s a good team, so we put together a good schedule. We’ll be stretched. We’ll be challenged.”

Dayton plays at No. 12 Michigan State in its second game at 7 p.m. Sunday. It also plays Pittsburgh, Western Kentucky, West Virginia, Purdue, Louisville and Akron before starting Atlantic 10 Conference play on Sept. 20.

The Flyers finished 14-4-2 overall and 7-1-2 in the A-10 last season. Saint Louis won the A-10 regular-season championship for the seventh time in eight years and won its eighth consecutive A-10 tournament.

Dayton’s top returning goal scorer is sophomore Laney Smith, who tied Noel Blain for the team lead with nine goals. Smith made the A-10 first team and All-Rookie team as a freshman.

“Last year, she served a role,” Golz said, “where she came in off the bench and gave us a spark toward the end of a half or middle to end of games. She scored (nine) goals in limited minutes, so we’re excited for her to increase that role. She’s worked really hard to grow and develop. She’s a lot better off of the ball now with her movement and spacing and decision-making, and she’s a lot better defender. She always comes to life when she has the ball at her feet.”

Another key returner is senior goalkeeper Batoul Reda, a four-year starter. She never left the field last season, playing all 1,800 minutes.

“I’m obviously biased,” Golz said, “but I think she’s the best goalkeeper in the history of the program, and the career shutout record is well within reach. She’s a special goalkeeper, and she’s evolved and developed into a special leader at this point. So she is certainly a really critical player for our team.”

Reda has 27 shutouts. Stephanie Weisenfeld set the record of 29 from 1999-2002.

The return of senior defender Kyra Karfonta, an A-10 first-team selection who has started every game the past two seasons, will help Reda with the shutout record.

In the midfield, sophomore Liv Grenda, who made the A-10 All-Rookie team last season, is a top returner.

“She had a really great freshman year,” Golz said. “I think she was playing honestly out of position all year because of positional needs that we had. We moved her back to a more natural position. She’ll be a playmaker as a central midfielder.”

Golz expects Grenda, senior midfielder Riley Kerber, who transferred to Dayton last season after two seasons at Boston College, and senior midfielder Molly Russell to be among the most improved players.

Kerber, Reda and Ferguson will serve as team captains.

The top newcomers include: sophomore midfielder Lauryn Contini, a transfer from Louisville; redshirt sophomore forward Olivia Baca, a transfer from Xavier; freshman forward Emery Newlin; freshman defender Caroline Schork; and freshman defender Claire Mikola.

“I think that we’re going to have some freshmen in each line,” Golz said. “Returning as many players as we did, I don’t know if any of them will break into the starting lineup right away, but I wouldn’t be surprised as we navigate through the season if they’re there by the end.”