South Carolina women’s soccer forward Catherine Barry faced a big decision at the end of the 2023 campaign.
Barry had just completed her senior season. She started in all 21 of the Gamecocks’ matches, led the team with nine goals and five assists, served as a team captain and could have decided to achieve her dream of becoming a professional soccer player.
But she ultimately decided to return to South Carolina for another season. She said she had “another gear” to reach at USC.
“I know I’m being pushed every day by my teammates. I have an amazing coaching staff that are ready to pour into me every single day to help push me and get me to be where I need to be,” Barry said. “I just felt like I had another year, both to kind of prove who I was, what I was capable of and to continue to grow before I went to that next level.”
Multiple players followed suit, deciding to use their fifth years to achieve both personal and team goals, as well as give back to the Gamecock women’s soccer program.
Five Gamecock players – Barry, forward Corinna Zullo, midfielder Brianna Behm, defender Hallie Meadows and goalkeeper Taylor Fox — announced they would return to the team for their fifth years via a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. All five players were granted an additional year of eligibility by the NCAA after the COVID-19 pandemic shortened collegiate sports seasons in 2020.
Head coach Shelley Smith said it did not take much convincing for South Carolina’s fifth-year players to return for another year.
“I believe that these guys want to play. They want to keep playing, and we have a program that they’ve poured a lot of their heart into — and time,” Smith said. “I’m thankful for the devotion they’ve shown to South Carolina, this team, and they want to be a part of it."
For Meadows, whose collegiate career spans 48 matches and 35 starts, the decision to play her fifth season of college soccer was a “no-brainer.” She said she was motivated after the team fell short of the goals it set at the beginning of the 2023 campaign.
Meadows said South Carolina’s players “want it all” this year after failing to advance far in both the SEC and NCAA tournaments last season.
“I remember, at the end of last season, we were like, ‘We’re not done,’” Meadows said. “We didn’t really reach the goals we wanted to reach, and knowing that we had more left in us, we had the opportunity to come back and knowing the people we were bringing in, we were like, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s run it back.’”
Both senior midfielder Lily Render and junior defender Gracie Falla said they believe the fifth-years’ presence will provide benefits to the team as a whole. Render, who will serve as a team captain alongside Barry and Meadows this season, said the fifth-years' return to the program is a testament to the family-like environment it has built in recent seasons.
Their experience playing against teams with a variety of skills and strategies also allows younger players who can benefit from their knowledge, Falla, the reigning SEC Defender of the Year, said.
“They’ve experienced a lot of things that also happened, and so they’ve been through it all, and so they know what it takes to win those championships,” Falla said. “Having that back is a huge asset for us.”
Smith said using an additional year of eligibility can also be beneficial for players with professional aspirations. Both goalkeeper Heather Hinz and defender Jyllissa Harris took advantage of the fifth-year granted to them by the NCAA and now play for the Houston Dash, a team in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Barry could similarly further her personal development after playing five years at South Carolina, Smith said.
“Players that return — and Cat’s a good example, she wants to play at the next level, so she knows you always need to prove yourself. And having good competition to play against is going to get you there,” Smith said. “I think they’ll take advantage of the fact that they have one more year here and really focus on being a pro and working with our strength and conditioning staff and everything else that’s offered to them.”
The ultimate reason each of the Gamecocks' fifth-years returned to the team, though, is because of their collective goal to further the growth of the program and "leave it better than we found it," Barry said .
“I think that was hard for a lot of us to pass up, and I think that’s evidenced by the fact that we have five girls coming back from our original class, so I think that’s pretty remarkable,” Barry said. “I know that we’re all really excited for what we’re capable of this year and to have one more year to give back to this program.”