COLUMBUS, Ga. — The Catawba College women's soccer program's NCAA Tournament tradition lives on for an eighth straight season as the No. 4 seed Catawba Indians take on fifth-seeded UNC Pembroke to kick off the Southeast Regional on Friday.
Heap of hardware
The Catawba Indians won the South Atlantic Conference regular season championship and finished as the SAC Tournament runner-up. With a 13-5-2 overall record and a dominating 8-1-1 record in league play, the blue and white garnered seven all-conference honorees and claimed three of four major awards. Bree Ehmer, who was a D2CIDA National Player of the Week earlier in the season, went back-to-back as the SAC Offensive Player of the Year. Ali Skinner held down one of the conference's finest defensive units en route to landing Defensive Player of the Year honors. Head coach Nick Brown took home his fourth career and second consecutive SAC Coach of the Year award.
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Postseason history
The program makes its 13th appearance in the national tournament, posting a 9-10-2 record with an even 2-2 ledger in contests held in Columbus, Ga. Catawba has been seeded fourth or higher in every regional since 2021 after earning the seventh and eighth seeds in 2018 and 2019, respectively; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, postseason play was not held in 2020. The Catawba Indians have won five consecutive openers, winning the No. 4 vs. No. 5 match in 2024 over Flagler which was also hosted at Columbus State.
Leading the way
Ehmer owns the team lead in scoring with 11 goals and has sole possession of second place in Catawba history with 54 career strikes. Cadence Setzer is tied for third in program history with 12 assists this season, a mark good for eighth in Division II; she had the second-most votes among SAC forwards in all-conference voting. Ella Matthews led SAC voting at the midfielder position as the senior has scored seven times with five assists. Skinner played her team-best 1,601st minute in the SAC Tournament final. Lauren Zitt will defend the Catawba net with a 1.03 goals-against average and a .768 save percentage, totaling 63 stops between the posts.
Regional bracket
Catawba battles fifth-seeded UNC Pembroke in the opening round on Friday at 10 a.m. at the Walden Soccer Complex. The Braves, who finished 12-2-5, were Conference Carolinas East Division champions and reached the conference tournament final. Catawba and UNCP shared five common opponents that the Catawba Indians went 5-0 against; the Braves were 3-2-1.
Top-seeded Columbus State matches up with fellow Peach Belt Conference foe No. 8 seed Flagler; both teams faced Catawba in late-season non-conference matches. The winners of Friday's matches go toe-to-toe on Sunday at 1 p.m. with a Southeast Regional final berth on the line.
Follow along
For live video and stats links, visit CatawbaAthletics.com. Coverage for all NCAA Tournament matches is available through ncaa.com.
