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The Massachusetts women’s soccer team’s run as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference came to an end on Sunday, Nov. 10, when they were defeated in the conference championship by a powerhouse program, the St. Louis Billikens. As head coach Jason Dowiak, his staff and his players look towards next season, they will be faced with an entirely new slate of opponents in the Mid-American Conference.
But before they prepare for “MACtion,” there is plenty of successful history within the A-10 to reminisce upon.
The A-10 began holding conference play and a championship tournament for women’s soccer in 1993. UMass has been a member of the women’s soccer conference since that 1993 season, which is when it began one of the more dominant runs in the history of the conference. Between 1993-1997 the Minutewomen reached each conference championship game, winning all but one of them in 1996 when Dayton knocked them off that throne.
It became tough sledding for UMass for the rest of the 90s and most of the 2000s. The Minutewomen finally made it back to the finals in 2011, but were defeated handily by Dayton, 5-1. UMass waited ten more years to reach the final, returning to it in 2021 when it lost 4-1 to St. Louis, a team that has won seven straight conference championships dating back to 2018.
Arguably the most notable player in UMass women’s soccer history, Briana Scurry, dates back to the inaugural season of the A-10 championships in 1993. Scurry played for UMass from 1990-1993 and was an integral piece of the 1993 team that won the first ever A-10 championship and reached the NCAA Final Four. Scurry recorded an astonishing 15 shutouts that season, which stands to this day as the most in a single season in A-10 history. She posted a conference best .912 save percentage and a 0.48 goals against average and was named the Adidas goalkeeper of the year in NCAA Division I women’s soccer.
Scurry went on to play for the United States national team from 1994-2008, winning two Olympic gold medals as the starting goalkeeper in 1996 and 2004. She also won a gold medal in the 1999 FIFA World Cup.
After 1997, the program failed to reach the NCAA tournament again because they were unable to reach the summit of mount A-10, in what is typically a conference that only sends its winner to the national stage.
UMass holds the distinction of being one of the four programs that have been a part of the A-10 for its entire history as a women’s soccer conference, and of those four teams, the Minutewomen have the best conference record, 161-123-31. They are third all-time in winning percentage (.567), behind only Dayton and St. Louis.
The top three goal scorers in UMass history all played during the dominant run it had from 1993-1997. Emily Kurowski (1996-1999) holds the program record with 47 goals in her career, while Rebecca Myers (1993-1996) and Kara Green (1997-2000) had 38 and 37, respectively.
The all-time games played leader is Fiona Kane, who played in 89 games from 2019-2023 and was an integral member of UMass’ recent success that saw it make the A-10 tournament each year of her career.
The winningest coach in the history of the program is Jim Rudy, who was at the helm of the Minutewomen from 1988-2008. He led his team through that dominant stretch in the 1990s and was named A-10 coach of the year in 1993, 1995 and 1997. He finished his 20-year career with 239 wins.
Now that its time in the A-10 has come to an end, UMass looks forward into the MAC, where it will have a chance to walk in and become a conference powerhouse in year one.
Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @matt_skillings.
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