MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Faulkner Women's Soccer is back under direction of Jon Ireland who returns to the Montgomery touchline for the first time since 2006 as the Lady Eagles get ready to kickoff the 2026 season with a chance to make an impression in a challenging Southern States Athletic Conference. 

Ireland's vision for success for his first season back in 20 years is based on the day-to-day approach the team takes. "Every coach is going to say we want a winning record, we want to make the tournament, we want to win the championship, we want to go to nationals. But what I've stressed is that everyone wants that. So that has little to do with the outcome. It's more about your standards and the process at which you do things every single day is really where our focus is at."

SCHEDULE
The nonconference features just five games with a pair of NCAA foes and two matches on a neutral field against first-time foes Columbia International and Bryan before wrapping up the nonconference slate Labor Day weekend against Ave Maria. 

"I think the most exciting thing is just playing someone so I can see kind of the level that we're dealing with [in our opponents]," Ireland said. "Trying to look back 20 years ago when I was here, we played some of the same teams, and we played Huntingdon, we played Shorter but still everything's changed. So for me, it's just the excitement of playing some teams that kind of see where we stack up."

Faulkner welcomes three new foes into the league with new national challenger Xavier (La.), former DIII side Wesleyan (Ga.) and JUCO riser Andrew College (Ga.) joining the fray.  The expanded SSAC slate will see the Lady Eagles play 13 contests in conference play with 14 teams vying for just eight spots in the conference postseason. 

"The start is extremely tough," Ireland said. "We're at Dalton, then Life, then we play Xavier and William Carey. The first four games are just very, very difficult. So that's a stretch where we really get tested and kind of see right off the bat on how competitive we might be. And then, after that first stretch–this is just based on last year where teams finished–you have a schedule there a little bit with some games that we can maybe compete with better; year-to-year everything changes. But the first four conference games are really challenging and I think that sets the tone, win or lose, for how competitive we're going to be."

The Lady Eagles, who claimed the eight seed last year, were predicted to be the first team out of the postseason in the preseason coaches' poll. Ireland doesn't read too much into the preseason poll and its indication towards the team. "It means nothing. Everyone voted based on last year. We finished eighth when we finished the conference and so you add Xavier in and that moved us back. So everyone just votes on party lines of what happened last year… I told the girls, 'it's great that we're picking near the bottom. No one's going to expect anything from us, and that's just how I like it.'"

KEY RETURNERS
Faulkner returns over 15,000 minutes from last year with the top five leaders in minutes played back for the 2026 season. Tora Andersson, Mekenzie Bettis, Cassie Jackson, Ellie McKay and Emily Hardman all amassed over 1300 minutes in 2025. 

Andersson and Bettis were the only two to start all 18 matches last season and defended for nearly 3000 minutes between the two. The freshmen combined for just three yellow cards in that time. The duo of Hardman and McKay chipped in two goals and three assists from the backline in their first seasons at Faulkner.

"Experience matters, even sometimes more than your talent level. You love experience all over the field, but to have a back line and center backs and outside backs, you know, goalkeepers that have a lot of minutes is massive just because they know what it's like to play the teams that they have to play. They're not going to be afraid. They know what to expect when they play all these teams. That's a huge bonus for us to have so many girls that played so many minutes and bring that experience."

In the attack, the Lady Eagles return 20 goals and 17 assists for 57.8 percent of goal contributions. Jackson led the team with her career-high 11 goals and four assists, entering her senior season with 21 goals and 11 assists in her first three years. Tying for the team lead in assists in 2025 was Yury Santaclara who had six goal contributions with four helpers from the midfield. Brooke Parker and her twin sister Jordan Parker saw double, each collecting two goals and two assists in their first year of college soccer. 

"I think that's been the biggest focus for us really, the last week or so is in our final third. [We've been] really working with our attacking players and helping them know how to navigate that area in terms of giving us the best chance to create crosses or corners or shots."

In goal the Lady Eagles return all 18 starts in goal and 79 of the 80 saves made last year back between the posts in Mireia Ferrero Rosino and Taylor Waters. Waters started 11 matches and saved 46 shots and picked up an SSAC Defender of the Week award for her shutout in last year's opener against Freed-Hardeman. Rosino saved 75 percent of her shots faced last year in seven starts. 

"A lot of times you just have one goalkeeper and they get all the minutes and then if something happens, you bring a backup and you have zero experience and it's always a little bit difficult. This is a great situation to have; two goalkeepers that played a lot of minutes [last year]. They'll compete with each other, but if you have an injury, you trust both of them. They both have the experience, they both have the quality, they're both a little bit different in terms of what they bring. But that is a massive, massive advantage for us to have 2 really good goalkeepers and not just talented, but they have experience and experience matters."

KEY NEWCOMERS
Faulkner welcomes three transfers and five freshmen onto the varsity squad who look to provide immediate impact as the Lady Eagles challenge in the SSAC. 

DeAireal Williams comes to Faulkner after starting 21 matches in 30 appearances over two years at Meridian CC in Mississippi. Sammy Thiele joins the Lady Eagles after 14 starts and three goal contributions at Mineral Area College in Missouri. Katelyn Sutton, the Alabama Christian Academy graduate, returns home to Montgomery after a season at Harding where she appeared four times and started once. 

"They've all done very, very well. And the hope is with transfers that they can come in and make an immediate impact. They have experience. And so that gives them an edge potentially over high school kids naturally. To have them come in and be as impactful as they've been, it has been a big bonus as well. So I think those three have all done very well."

Gabriela Garzon Valero, the lone international freshman, joins the forwards out of Bogota, Colombia. A couple of Floridians, Sydney Steele and Leah Wooten, join the midfield cohort with Alabamians Abbie Lower and Natalie Bunch helping shore up the defense. 

"We have several kids that have done very, very well. Abbie has done very, very well. She's really kind of surprised us. We weren't necessarily expecting that. I had not even met some of these girls until preseason, so I wasn't really sure who everyone was. So that's made it challenging. She's really, really stood out and done a fantastic job. And then Gabriella from Colombia has also been an impact player for us and I think has a lot of potential."

The Lady Eagles begin 2026 Thursday night at 6 p.m. central against Shorter before welcoming Huntingdon to Billy D. Hilyer Stadium for the home opener Saturday night at 7 p.m.