Memphis Women's Soccer Begins Fall Camp

Tigers get preseason under way with intra-squad scrimmage

Nine months after falling to East Carolina in the AAC Tournament Final, the women’s soccer team at the University of Memphis is back in camp getting ready for a new season. There figure to be a lot of new faces on the team this fall, as the Tigers will have just one senior for the first time since 2013. But that’s not what the biggest change will be for the 2025 season. The stands inside the Billy Murphy Track & Soccer stadium are now completely gone as the school begins to rebuild what will soon be called the Liza Wellford Fletcher Soccer & Track Stadium.

“Well, I had a plan.” said Head Coach Brooks Monaghan, who is entering his 26th season at the helm of the Memphis women’s team. “My plan was to get a lounge chair and a cooler of beer and sit in the middle of that field and watch it all take place. But unfortunately, I was on vacation. I sent Dr. Scott a text message that some people see this as a pile of rubble, but I see it as a Picasso. We got a good laugh out of that. But it’s obviously something that we’ve been wishing for, for a long time and to see it really take shape is pretty special.”

Finley Lavin will be one of the captains for the Tigers this year and, she too, is excited for the new stadium.

“So excited.” she said. “I think it’s something that we’ve deserved for a long time, and I think that to see it becoming a reality is awesome.”

The last several seasons have seen some high-quality senior leadership for the Tigers, but that will be tested this season with such a young team. Fortunately, Coach Monaghan doesn’t anticipate much of a drop off.

“I don’t think the dynamic really changes.” he said. “We just happen to have two kids that will be our captains in Finley Lavin and Ashley Henderson. And I haven’t been this excited for captains in a long time. It’s not to knock anybody in the last few years, but I think you’ve got two very different individuals that bring different things. When you bring them together, they really check all the boxes that we’re looking for from a leadership standpoint and it makes it easy for the rest of the team because all they need to do is follow those guys.”

For her part, Lavin is embracing her role as a captain and a team leader.

“Yeah, it’s crazy. Time flies by fast.” she said. “I think it’s really nice to be a higher role now and being able to help our younger teammates go through the same process that I went through. It’s very exciting.

I think the emphasis on the upperclassmen is to just be role models and be an example for the younger ones. Show them what it truly means to be a Memphis soccer player. And hopefully they buy-in and join us.”

Last season was the first time since 2017 that Memphis had missed the NCAA Tournament. How they were left out of the field, despite a record of 13-2-4 and a season-long Top 25 ranking, remains a mystery. But the Tigers are using it as fuel for this season.

“Obviously last year was tough especially with our record and not getting in.” Monaghan said. “You know, obviously, we hold this program to a very high standard and expect to win championships and play in NCAA Tournaments. But that doesn’t just happen, right? It takes a lot of things. But I think there’s a little bit of extra motivation and again, this is the youngest team. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we can get there. We did have a very good spring. We had a lot of young kids that didn’t play a lot of minutes last year really step up and do some great things in the spring. And that’s what every coach wants to see.”

And it wouldn’t be a Memphis women’s soccer season without a tough non-conference schedule for the Tigers with the likes of Tennessee, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Missouri all from the SEC, paying a visit to Memphis this season.

“Yeah, and you guys know we always play a pretty tough schedule and play a lot of those teams.” Monaghan said. “But this year just happens to be a special year where we’re hosting those teams. So, it’s pretty exciting. I mean, we’ve had a lot of success at home and hopefully that will continue when we play these teams. But I think it is exciting for the soccer community here in town to come out and watch some quality soccer.”