{"id":236168,"date":"2025-10-24T05:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/236168\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T05:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:22:11","slug":"back-by-popular-demand-womens-club-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/236168\/","title":{"rendered":"Back by popular demand: Women\u2019s club soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do we need a women\u2019s club soccer team? Captains Gaby Nieraeth and Caia Marcee say yes. After nearly having to disband the team, women\u2019s club soccer is kicking off the semester with new members. Before the 2025 fall semester, the women\u2019s club soccer team didn\u2019t have enough interest to continue, according to the club. However, with the addition of more than 20 players, the team has plans of joining an indoor league.<\/p>\n

When the club\u2019s disbandment became a realistic possibility, Gaby Nieraeth, junior marketing and communication double-major, and Caia Marcee, junior political science major, took over the positions as club captains at the end of their first year. According to Nieraeth, the two wanted to boost morale and increase awareness in hopes of reigniting interest in the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaia and I had really bonded over this club, and we felt protective over it because it brought us this friendship,\u201d Nieraeth said.<\/p>\n

Anyone can join club soccer. Whether they\u2019ve played soccer your whole life, dabbled in the sport or never kicked a ball, all are welcome to join the club. Both Nieraeth and Marcee came from soccer backgrounds and joined in hopes of continuing to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love the sport, and it was important to me to keep active and keep playing and keep doing something that I love in college,\u201d Marcee said. \u201cIt was a really important source of routine and social interaction and getting to know new people when I was a freshman. I had a built-in group of people that I would see regularly, and it was something in my schedule that I could always look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though they joined with high hopes, the interest in the club was low. Up until this semester, the club didn\u2019t have enough players to participate in a league. Courtney McHenry, sophomore economics major, joined the club in the fall of 2024 and noted the lack of morale.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people would show up and be like, \u2018this isn\u2019t that cool\u2019 or they would be like, \u2018it doesn\u2019t matter if I show up or not,\u2019\u201d McHenry said. \u201cYou can\u2019t do as much at practice when you have so few people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With the start of the new semester, the club has seen new changes as well. The club has more awareness, and new members have now joined \u2013 first-years and upperclassmen alike. The club has practices every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 7 p.m. Where there used to be no more than three players at practice, there are now more than 20 players consistently attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me really proud, and I really love this club. Gaby and I put in a lot of time, and a lot of work and a lot of thought into what we did last year,\u201d Marcee said. \u201cIt is really gratifying to see the work that we did last year pay off and to see the influx of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of practice, the team joined an indoor soccer league. On Oct. 16, the club played their first two games. The first one resulted in a loss, but the second game ended with a last-minute goal scored by Kate Jacobson, first-year undecided major.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play for two 20-minute halves, and it\u2019s a lot of fun. We play with a wide range of women. Some girls are college-age, and there\u2019s some women that are there with their children,\u201d Nieraeth said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a really fun time, and it was a good middle-ground for our club.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the spring, Nieraeth and Marcee will be studying abroad in London, attending separate programs. To ensure the club\u2019s continued leadership, the club selected two new captians. At the beginning of the semester, Genevieve Dakour, senior neuroscience major, became captain. As of mid-October, the team named McHenry their newest co-captain.
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved soccer, and I\u2019ve always loved coaching. That\u2019s always been a big thing of mine that I love,\u201d McHenry said. \u201cI love being a mentor, almost. So now with my future position, that\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further down the line, the current captains have goals of joining a bigger league, where the club will play teams from other colleges in and outside of Texas. While these plans didn\u2019t happen in the past, the club\u2019s increase in popularity and work from Marcee and Nieraeth is making this dream a possibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do we need a women\u2019s club soccer team? Captains Gaby Nieraeth and Caia Marcee say yes. After nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-236168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}