The Massachusetts women’s soccer team will kick off its 2024 season on Thursday night against Syracuse. Coming off of a 9-5-4 2023 campaign while finishing fourth in the Atlantic 10, expectations for the 2024 season are high amongst the Minutewomen, especially knowing that it will be their final season in the A-10.
UMass returns 17 upperclassmen, including four graduate students, meaning nearly its entire starting eleven from last season will be taking the pitch again in 2024.
The two biggest pieces that will be back at Rudd Field this season are senior midfielder Bella Recinos and graduate goalkeeper Bella Mendoza, commonly referred to as “the Bella’s.”
Recinos led the Minutewomen in goals and assists last season, with seven and five respectively. The senior also spent time with the El Salvador national team over the winter, and has been rewarded for her success by being named to the U.S. Soccer Coaches preseason “midfielders to watch” list, an exclusive group that sets expectations very high.
“[Recinos is] an unbelievable soccer player, she’s so passionate about the game,” head coach Jason Dowiak said. “She never wants to leave the field, she’s the biggest soccer junkie that maybe I’ve ever coached, and she just continues to grow.”
“[Recinos] has really high aspirations for what she wants to accomplish this year, but also she’s not done after this year…we’re doing anything we can to help her have great opportunities to go pro after this season and I think any club that gives her a chance will understand why she was midfielder of the year for us last year.”
Mendoza had a breakout season in net for the Minutewomen in 2023, playing nearly every game after her goaltending partner, Megan Olszewski, went down with a season ending injury in just their second game.
The now-redshirt senior posted eight shutouts in 18 games in 2023, while maintaining a minuscule goals against average (GAA) of .997. She finished third in the A-10 in both GAA and save percentage (81.9 percent).
Mendoza is the oldest goalie in front of two incoming freshmen, Leah Nisenfeld and Julia Rosenberg, who Dowiak says have looked strong during training camp and the preseason. He wants Nisenfeld and Rosenberg to learn from Mendoza as she embarks on her final season at UMass.
With such a large group of returning upperclassmen, Dowiak believes his team is prepared to take the next big step in its evolution as a unit.
“We’re in a really good place from a team culture standpoint, and that has so much to do with this big group of returning players,” Dowiak said. “I think all of the work that we’ve put in and the time that we’ve spent trying to get as many strong relationships built within the team, especially over the last couple of years, is what has provided what I think is a really unique opportunity for this big, strong, really powerful leadership group to set us up for a lot of success this year.”
The Minutewomen kick their season off with a challenging non-conference schedule that includes matchups against three power-conference opponents: Syracuse, Boston College and Rutgers.
“[Assistant coach Sam Mitchell] took over our scheduling and he’s worked really hard to create, especially for this year, a really well-thought-out and really competitive non-conference schedule,” Dowiak said. “It is on purpose. We’ve got a great group, we’ve got a big mature returning group of seniors and fifth years and we wanted to challenge ourselves to a new level.”
The ultimate goal Dowiak and his team have in 2024 is to make the NCAA Tournament, a step they all believe they are ready to make with such an experienced group. It would be the team’s first NCAA berth since 1997.
“If we can get good results against these teams that are likely going to be ranked in the top 50 this year, [then] it creates an opportunity for us to go into A-10 play with a lot of confidence. But also, if we do our job in the A-10, [we might] not have to outright win the league to get into the national tournament,” Dowiak said. “That has been a big and real goal for this senior and fifth year class, that we take this next step and make the national tournament.”
UMass kicks off its 2024 season on Thursday night at Syracuse at 7 p.m. The game can be streamed on ACC Network Extra or ESPN3.
Matt Skillings can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter/X @matt_skillings.
