The St. Edward’s University women’s club soccer team continues to improve from year’s past, and is now matching this growth with quality opponents.

This season, the women face tougher competition as they move into a new conference, with the majority of teams coming from Division I schools. However, they have passed one of their first tests with flying colors, defeating a talented Texas A&M – Kingsville squad 1-0.

Along with the new season and new conference, the team is also welcoming many new faces. This year’s squad includes 12 underclassmen, many of them freshman.

Despite the win against Texas A&M – Kingsville, the young team is still developing chemistry, as they also have two losses to start the season.

“We are still learning how to play together,” Club President Danielle Rivera said. “Our main goal is to create a sense of community.”

This sense of community not only includes activities on the field, but off of it as well.

“We all go to Group X classes and even to Cabo Bob’s after practice together sometimes,” Caitlin Laughlin said. “We are all genuinely friends.”

However, it is not all fun and games. The team remains highly focused on the future, believing they can compete against top tier competition and win the majority of their games.

“We want to be able to beat our main rivals, Texas State,” lub Treasurer Cassidy Emmitte said. “But in order to do that, we have to be fit and be able to play well as a team.”

The main goal for this year’s team is to win games, but it is also to build connections and develop cohesion.

“We want to build long lasting friendships, so that we can stay engaged as a team on and off the field,” Rivera said.

Part of this engagement on the field includes creating positive energy and staying loose.

“We do the ‘Give ‘em Hill’ chants at halftime to get our team pumped up,” Lauren Zambrano said. “It also helps us stay loose and ready to play.”

Despite having such a young team, though, leadership positions are not exclusive to the upperclassmen. Junior Mckenna Dunn may be one of the veteran voices on the team, but this has not stopped some of the younger members from stepping up.

“Freshman Michelle Chambers and sophomore Megan Birdsell have been some of our strongest players so far,” Rivera said.

The women look to continue to grow and overcome the learning curve in their next game, against the University of Texas on Thursday.