The South Carolina men’s and women’s soccer regular seasons are officially underway. Coach Mark Berson and the men's team started the season with a 2-1 win over USC Upstate on Friday, while Coach Shelley Smith and the women’s team are 3-1, thanks to a win over High Point on Sunday. Here are five takeaways from the start of the soccer season:
1. Records snapped
The women’s soccer team opened the season with two straight wins over Central Florida and Florida Gulf Coast, but suffered a 3-2 loss to Wake Forest on Thursday. The loss was the team’s first regular season loss since Oct. 22, 2015, and snapped the Gamecocks’ program-record six-match road winning streak that dated back to last season.
2. Savannah McCaskill’s dominance
Forward Savannah McCaskill started as a center attacking midfielder in Thursday’s game against Wake Forest. While the team lost that game, the performance marked her first multi-goal game of the season. She recorded five multi-goal matches last year before earning NSCAA All-America honors and being named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year. McCaskill was just three points shy of 100 on her career entering Sunday's game. Her 97 points rank third all-time in South Carolina women’s soccer program history, according to GamecocksOnline.
3. Luca Mayr’s contributions
Sophomore midfielder and forward Luca Mayr will look to capitalize on an impressive freshman campaign last season, in which he started all 20 matches and was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman Team. In Friday’s 2-1 win over USC Upstate, Mayr scored the go-ahead goal on a penalty kick to the left and tallied an assist. He led the team with five shots and two shots on goal that game.
4. Keeping up with the keepers
Senior goalkeeper William Pyle allowed a shot to slip past him in the second minute of the season opener against USC Upstate. Following the goal, Pyle buckled down and totaled three saves in the second period to preserve USC’s lead. Meanwhile, Mikayla Krzeczowski has amassed two shutout wins this season. As a freshman, Krzeczowski led the SEC and ranked ninth nationally with 11 shutouts, according to GamecocksOnline. She allowed three goals to the Demon Deacons, who put four of their six shot attempts on goal in Thursday’s win over the Gamecocks.
5. Freshman impact
Freshmen have already made an impact on the men’s and women’s teams this season. Petter Soelberg, a freshman from Stockholm, Sweden, scored the first goal in Friday’s game on USC Upstate’s keeper Santiago Restrepo. It was the first goal of his Gamecock career. Meanwhile, freshman Benjamin Gilligan drew a key foul off USC Upstate’s Cam Philpot that led to Mayr’s go-ahead penalty kick goal for the win on Friday. As for the women’s team, freshman midfielder Lauren Chang scored a goal in the regular season opener against UCF, and freshmen Sarah Eskew and Luciano Zullo scored against High Point on Sunday.