| For
more on the Rhodes College Women's Soccer program including full
schedule, statistics, player profiles, and news, please visit RhodesLynx.com |
2025 Record: Overall: 13-5-2 — Conference: 4-2-1
Editor’s Note
— To all the members of the 2025 Women’s Soccer Team, especially to
those who are members of the Rhodes College graduating Class of
2026 as you take the next major step in your journey, please let me
borrow a line from a favorite movie and adopt it as
my own: “My prayer for you is that God blesses you in this life.” (From
the movie: Remember the Goal) Thank you for your dedication to your studies and to your sport.
(By the way, Remember the Goal is a good movie about a coach and her girls' high school cross country team, well worth viewing in this writer's opinion.)
Spring Scrimmages: "The Girls Are Ecstatic and Excited About It"
After Nearly Six Weeks of Practice — Competition
Update April 11, 2026: snapshots from the Spring Scrimmages have now been posted here.April 10, 2026 - Yesterday, the Rhodes College Women’s Soccer Team’s spring roster played 45 minutes against Christian Brothers University and 45 minutes against Northwest Mississippi Community College in the spring scrimmage.
Rhodes did not score, but the other teams did. If you’re going to get outscored, a spring scrimmage is a good time to do it.
Northwest was the star of the scrimmages. They outscored both Rhodes and CBU.
In previously published articles on this page it was stated that the transfer student athlete would not join the team until August. It turns out that Lauren Hollis joined the team this spring and played in yesterday’s scrimmages.
Based on the players jersey numbers, it appears that Emily Russum was also on the field, much to the delight of this writer. Ms. Russum is a sophomore and has been on the soccer team for the past two years. But in the first game of 2024, in which she started, she was injured about 32 seconds into the game. A torn ACL takes a long time to heal. She worked her way back late last season but never was able to get into a game. So it was great to see her on the pitch during these scrimmages.
Despite the other teams shutting out Rhodes, Assistant Coach Kyle Schwartz says it was a worthwhile experience for both the coaches and the players. Hear his comment.
Schwartz said that in the spring players are not at their top match fitness and that he saw that in the nature of the play in the second 45 minutes scrimmage.
The spring roster consists of the sophomores, juniors and seniors as well as the one transfer in student-athlete. That’s about 20 players, whereas the fall team is expected to be close to 34 players. For the scrimmages yesterday, it appeared Rhodes College had about 16 players dressed out.
Spring practice started in early March and the team and the coaches have put in a lot of work. “Just having the fact we got to play two games, the girls are ecstatic and excited about it,” said Schwartz. Actual competition gave the coaches a better look at how the players fare on the pitch.
When practice resumes in mid August and the team is joined by about 14 incoming freshmen, Schwartz says it’s back to the basics. Those freshmen will be learning how Rhodes wishes to play.
This month, the NCAA is scheduled to publish any rule changes for the upcoming season. It appears any changes will be relatively minor. At last, check those rule proposals have not been adopted or published.
An intriguing recommendation from a NCAA Rules Committee is that Division I men’s college soccer extend its season to cover the entire academic year. The committee indicated the women’s game needed more study as to whether its season should be extended. Even if this rule would be adopted, it is questionable whether it will ever apply to Division III schools, of which Rhodes College is one. Some of the reasons cited for extending the men’s season are injury recovery time and especially more preparation for those who may go to the pro game. Given that professional aspect to the proposed rule, it may never be implemented for Division III schools. One published report indicates that of Division III men and women’s players, only 0.4% ever sign with an American professional soccer team. It is also reported that only 1% of soccer players from any division will ever go pro.
Having said that, this writer would love to see a longer season and more games for Division III Women’s Soccer. But that is a selfish point of view which ignores the primary purpose of college athletics. The primary purpose of college is academics. This writer agrees that academics are the most important aspect of college life. Good health, good citizenship and a good education should be the goal of both the students, faculty, coaches and the institution itself. Athletics should never interfere with that.
There are now just less than five months until Rhodes College opens its women’s soccer season. Go Rhodes!
Next Game: August preseason scrimmages. Regular season opens September 2!
[note April 17, 2026 - most of the above article was dictated to the computer due to the editor having carpal tunnel syndrome. That led to a number of grammatical and other errors, which it is hoped have now been corrected.]
Spring Practice Nears End — Scrimmages Thursday
Early Preparation for the 2026 Season Going Well
Obviously, the incoming freshmen are not part of the spring practice, nor is the one transfer student who plans to join the team. They will arrive in mid August for the preseason practices and the official first game of the season.
Coach McKinnon Pennell enters his third season as a head coach, all at Rhodes. Kyle Schwartz enter his enters his fourth season as assistant coach.
You
might think that the off season is one of a lot of relaxed down time
for a coach with nothing but a little recruiting, planning, and spring
practice. This year, however, may have been especially busy for Coach
Pannell and his wife Jenn, as they welcomed “Mac,” their newborn baby to
their family. Pennell says he can see the improvement in players who worked on their game during the off season. View his comment here.
Formal, although technically voluntary, off season sessions consist of two days of weightlifting, with a third day expected of some kind of additional voluntary workout, weights or running or whatever. Once the spring training season begins officially, that changes to one formal weightlifting session and three days of practice on the soccer field a week.
By NCAA rule, spring practice has 24 days of workouts.
While fitness is an important attribute he wants his players to have, Pennell says he doesn’t devote a lot of time in spring practice to that. His expectations are that, ideally, the players will come to practice in relatively good condition and furthermore, he says, running to get in shape isn’t particularly enjoyable. What conditioning occurs during practice is often handled by assistant coach Kyle Schwartz, who has a degree in sport and exercise science.
Coach Pennell says even the tactical aspects of the game are addressed on the field, not on whiteboards. During the regular season, however, as preparation for the upcoming games they do watch films two or three times a week.
The coach hopes all the players will be healthy and ready to play during the spring scrimmages on Thursday. A few have minor sprains and strains from which they are recovering.
The spring games/scrimmages first kick is 4:30 Thursday, April 9th at the Rhodes College Soccer Field. The opponents are Christian Brothers University and Northwest Mississippi Community College. While all the players on the Rhodes spring roster are returning from the team last year this will be their first external competition in 2026.
You can read a little bit more about the spring roster lineup and the spring games opponents in the article below.
Next Game: Spring Scrimmages with CBU and NWMCC, April 9, 2026, 4:30 p.m. at Rhodes College Soccer Field
Warming Up for the Passion & Joy of Women's Soccer
2026 Spring Practice Leading to Spring Scrimmages
March 23, 2026 [Updated March 24, 2026 to add details of
Coach Pennell's history] - It's spring and the weather is warming up.
It may be
nearly 5 months before the college women’s soccer season begins but the
excitement is beginning to warm up, too.
“It’s soccer. There’ll be a lot of empty seats.” That’s a line from a
television show that aired several years ago entitled “Last Man
Standing.”
Not any more. That was then. This is now. A March 28, 2026, National
Women’s Soccer League game in Denver has sold 50,000 tickets.[Update: the announced attendance for that game was 63,004.]
Women’s sports in the United States is on the rise. And the excitement
of soccer is catching on here. Soccer, of course, has been extremely
popular in other parts of the world for many years.
Two Memphis college women’s soccer teams made it to the NCAA tournament
last year: in Division I the University of Memphis and in Division III
Rhodes College. Both made it to the second round of the tournament. Both
offer an exciting brand of soccer played with passion and joy.
It is important to point out frequently that NCAA Division III sports,
of which Rhodes College is a member, does not offer athletic
scholarships. These ladies play for their love of the game.
It takes a lot of these students' time, effort and sacrifice all the
while maintaining grades at good schools. (See the Rhodes Soccer Team members of
2025 Southern Athletic Association's Academic Honor Roll below.)
Rhodes College opens their regular season on September 2. But right now it’s spring practice. On April 9, the Rhodes College Women’s soccer team will be finishing up spring training with a scrimmage against two teams: Christian Brothers University and Northwest Mississippi Community College. This spring’s scrimmages will be at the Rhodes College soccer field beginning at 4:30 p.m.
One cannot but be proud of the team member seniors graduating this spring
but their contribution to the team and to the college will be missed.
The 2025 Team Captain and leading scorer for the past two
years, Sophia Rall, is among those graduating this spring. The second
highest goal maker last year was Maddie Carter, who returns as a junior
for the 2026 season.
Rhodes has 19 returning players from last year’s squad. As it shapes up
now, only one player on the Rhodes team will be from Memphis and will be
Maddie Carter, a junior in the fall. The 15 new recruits will join the
team later in the summer. Fourteen of the recruits are coming from their
high schools and one more is a college transfer. Transferring in is Lauren
Hollis, a goalkeeper from Dickinson College who will be a junior at
Rhodes in the fall. Two of Rhodes College goalkeepers from last year
will be graduating this spring. It should be noted that the recruits
have made a verbal commitment to attend Rhodes.
See the 2026 Spring roster below.
Rhodes College head women's soccer coach, McKinnon Pennell, enters his
third year at Rhodes with a record of 25-9-3. It is also his 3rd year as
a college head coach. Under his ledership the team went to the
conference championship for the past two years, as it had under the
previous coach in 2023. For only the third time in school history, the
2025 team was invited to play in the NCAA Division III Championship
Tournament and for the first time advanced to the second round of that
playoff.
CBU has a new coach, Christopher Tadley, who has coached at the
University of Memphis and most recently led the program at Carroll
University, where he built one of the top teams in its conference. CBU
has six players on its roster from the Memphis metro area and six
international players. Last year, CBU posted a 3-12-1 record.
Northwest is led by James Beattie, a Glasgow, Scotland native, who
enters his seventh year as head coach there. Last year’s team posted a
21-1-1 record record and won the NCAA Division II Junior College
Tournament Championship.
Next Game: Spring Scrimmages with CBU and NWMCC, April 9, 2026, 4:30 p.m. at Rhodes College Soccer Field
Twenty-nine Players On SAA Fall 2025 Academic Honor Roll
Honor Requires a Minimum Fall Semester GPA of 3.25
January 30, 2026 - This may be the most exciting
statistic for Rhodes College Women's Soccer, one which this
author awaits eagerly each year. The Southern Athletic Association's
Fall Academic Honor Roll has been released. The 25 honorees achieved the
fall semester's
requirement of a grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.25 on a four
point system while participating in a SAA conference-sponsored varsity
sport. College is about many things but at its core is academics.
This publication is proud of all the team members and finds these
honorees are the super stars of the 2025 soccer team.
| Liv Barfield | Lina Kilgore |
| Elsa Billingslea | Aurelia Kirby |
| Caroline Buendia | Ellie Lawrence |
| Madeline Carter | Reese Owens |
| Annie Cimino | Jessie Poulter |
| Erin Cliff | Sophia Rall |
| Grace Culver | Blair Rice |
| Kayleigh Doherty | Emily Russum |
| Sydney Gallagher | Kat Stanley |
| Gabi Garza | Erin Strickland |
| Mallory Goldstein | Jane Volf |
| Cassidy Henghold | Maggie Wakefield |
| Charlotte Hill |
The Honor Roll was released January 20, 2026. An editorial issue delayed its publication here.
2026 [Spring] Roster Released
January 30,2026 - A roster of players for the 2026
Rhodes College Woman's Soceer Team has been released.All 19 of the listed
players are returning from th 2025 season. Incoming recruits are not
listed. At last check, all the 2026 recruits were seniors at their high
schools with that graduation expected in the spring. An expanded roster
is expected in August. Here is the spring Rhodes Lynx roster:
| Jersey # | Name | Position | 2026-27 Class Year | Hometown / Previous School |
| 1 | Gabi Garza | GK | So. | Dallas, TX / Ursuline Academy |
| 2 | Emily Russum | D/M | Jr. | Littleton, CO / Chatfield Senior HS |
| 4 | Lina Kilgore | D | Jr. | Kansas City, MO / Saint Teresa's Academy |
| 5 | Maddie Carter | F/M | Jr. | Cordova, TN / Briarcrest HS |
| 10 | Annie Cimino | M | Sr. | Charleston, WV / Charleston Catholic |
| 12 | Jessie Poulter | M | Jr. | Harpenden, UK / International School |
| 13 | Aurelia Kirby | M | So. | Charleston, WV / Charleston Catholic High School |
| 15 | Sydney Gallagher | D | So. | New Orleans, LA / Isidore Newman School |
| 17 | Jane Volf | M/D | Jr. | Houston, TX / Incarnate Word Academy |
| 18 | Erin Strickland | M/F | Sr. | Little Rock, AR / |
| 19 | Lily Simpson | OB | Jr. | Chattanooga, TN / Baylor HS |
| 20 | Mallory Goldstein | D | Sr. | Des Moines, IA / West Des Moines Valley High School |
| 21 | Erin Cliff | F/M | Jr. | Oakton, VA / Oakton HS |
| 24 | Cate Sato | OB | Jr. | Manchester, MO / Parkway South HS |
| 25 | Ellie Lawrence | M/F | Sr. | Shreveport, LA / CE Byrd |
| 27 | Charlotte Hill | M | So. | Mount Pleasant, SC / Oceanside Collegiate Academy |
| 30 | Kate McGarvey | M | So. | Houston, TX / Incarnate Word Academy |
| 33 | Abby Bell | D | So. | Atlanta, GA / Blessed Trinity Catholic HS |
| 35 | Kat Stanley | M/D | Sr. | Greenville, NC / Virginia Military Institute |
Post-Season Interview with Coach McKinnon Pennell
Extended Version
Topic 1: Overall assessment of the 2025 season
Topic 2: Thoughts on the NCAA Round 2 Game with Emory
Topic 3: NCAA Money for Participation in Championship Tournament
Topic 4: Travel Arrangements
Topic 5: Is there a limit on the number of players on a team or travel squad?
Topic 6: Travel Issues in Texas and Study Time
Topic 7: How Do You Recruit?
Topic 8: Status of Recruiting Efforts for the 2026 Team
Topic 9: Stadium Assets
Topic 10: The Coaching Position
Topic 11: What Does Coach Pennell Think About Memphis?
Closing Comments
Rhodes College 2025 Women's Soccer Program Credits
It's Time to Recognize Those Directly Involved
in the 2025 Women's Soccer Program
The 2025 Season articles have been moved to their own page. See them here.