In year one under head coach Duma Magagula, the Holy Cross women’s soccer team took some lumps. The Saints went 5-11-1 overall, adding a 3-7-1 mark in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference play. However, despite finishing four games below .500 in league action, the Saints missed out on the CCAC Tournament by only two points, finishing the regular season in ninth place.
Without postseason benefits, Olivia Shaw still put together an excellent year of soccer at Holy Cross. The senior midfielder accumulated five goals and eight assists for 18 points as the only Saints to start all 17 games. Shaw’s ability and availability landed her on the CCAC Second Team All-Conference, backing up her First Team selections from 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Shaw’s big season, which opened with a stretch of 13 points in the year’s first eight games, also helped her make program history. Ending the season with career totals of 29 goals, 46 assists and 104 points, Shaw became the Holy Cross women’s soccer All-Time Points Leader.
Her torrid start helped the Saints out to an early 2-1 record, which included a thrilling, 3-2 win at Indiana East in the final week of August. That victory, however, would remain the Saints’ only win away from home, as Holy Cross went 1-8 in road games. Still, Holy Cross got the job done at home, posting a 4-3-1 record in South Bend.
After the takedown of Indiana East, Holy Cross won just two games across eight weeks in September and October. The two wins came in September, the first being a 4-3 shootout against Governors State and the second a 3-1 defeat of Viterbo. But five consecutive October losses, four in which the Saints went scoreless, followed the Viterbo game. The Saints did manage to end the season on a high, defeating Indiana South Bend by a 3-1 score in the season finale.
Holy Cross didn’t get a ton of goal-scoring production in 2023, and most of it came from outside the forward position. Freshman defender Abigail Fouts finished second to Shaw with three goals, while senior midfielder Nicole Cook added a trio of goals herself to go with three assists. Sophomore midfielder Hannah Lemieux also factored in at times, starting 16 games and posting six points with two goals and two assists.
In goal, junior Taylor Primack handled most of the work, starting 12 games. She went 3-6-1 in her outings, playing to a .654 save percentage and 2.35 goals against average in over 1,000 minutes. Freshman Payton Ladson also saw a healthy amount of action, making five starts and accumulating a .659 save percentage and 2.75 goals against average.
Overall, the Saints played with an experienced core of talent leading the way in 2023. Of the 10 players who started at least 11 games, eight were juniors or seniors.
