The collection of Aussie midfielders in NCAA Division I is perhaps the most intriguing of all position groups this year. Not only does reigning Rachael Doyle Medallist Abbey Burns return for UAB, former Sydney FC star Margaux Chauvet arrives at Purdue with an elite CV. Meg Roden’s transfer from High Point to Providence is also an attention-grabber, and Candice Kilderry will look to build on her breakout 2024 season at Little Rock.
Sophie Abbott (Junior, Cleveland State, Adelaide)
A star for Johnson County Community College alongside High Point signing Montana-Rose Currey, Sophie Abbott has also made the move to NCAA Division I, joining Horizon League outfit Cleveland State. The Adelaide City product featured in 43 games for the Cavaliers over two seasons, notching a pair of goals and six assists whilst helping the team to appearances in the NJCAA Division II national championship game in each of her two seasons.
The last few seasons have not been kind to Cleveland State, falling from an 11-win season in 2018 to a 2-14-1 record in 2024, with no real upticks in fortune in between. However, four of the team’s six players to record over 1000 minutes in 2024 return for 2025, including leading goalscorer Mayra Sesmas, who found the back of the net five times last season. These returning players look set to form the backbone of the lineup, but there will certainly be opportunities for players like Abbott given there has still been some level of roster turnover.
Lara Aitken (Freshman, Jacksonville State, Melbourne)
A long-time member of the Football Victoria Academy program, Lara Aitken makes the move to Jacksonville State with state representation under her belt. A member of the Victorian NTC Challenge side in 2023, Aitken featured alongside former A-League and recent UEFA Women’s Champions League player Ava Piazza, whilst also playing alongside a number of A-League players during her time with the state academy program.
Aitken now joins a Gamecocks program that has improved markedly over recent years, taking to Conference USA like a duck to water after making the jump from the ASUN. The team has flourished under head coach Sean Fraser, who led Louisiana-Monroe to 24 wins over his final two seasons with the Warhawks before making the move to Jacksonville State. The Gamecocks finished with just three wins in 2022, before Fraser led an improvement to six wins in 2023 and then eight in 2024. However, several of the team’s stars have transferred to bigger programs, including the top two scorers from 2024. If they can replace those goals, the team will be looking good, but they could use some improvement at the defensive end. Although the Gamecocks banged home 2.2 goals per game in 2024, shipping 1.68 goals per game put a dent in the potential impact made by that elite attack.
Abbey Burns (Senior, UAB, Adelaide)
The 2024 College Matildas Player of the Year, Abbey Burns returns to UAB for her senior season with an All-Conference First Team selection from 2024 under her belt. The South Australian featured in 16 of UAB’s 17 matches, playing the full 90 minutes on every occasion throughout her first season as Blazers captain. Burns improved her output significantly in 2024, posting seven goals and two assists after coming into the campaign with just one in both the goals and assists column for her college career. Included in those seven goals was a perfect 3-3 record from the penalty spot, where Burns looked as composed as you’d expect from a captain on every occasion.
UAB have flipped either side of the .500 mark over the last few seasons, following up a 6-7-5 record in 2023 with a 7-5-5 mark in 2024 but unfortunately fell to Rice in the opening round of the AAC Tournament. Despite Burns’ seven goals, the Blazers were only able to conjure a total of 18 for the season, a number that pales in comparison to their defensive numbers and will have to improve if they are to take the next step. In saying that, the team’s top three goal scorers, including Burns, all return for 2025 and that can only be a positive.
Viktorija Calusic (Freshman, College of Charleston, Brisbane)
A dual-sport athlete, Brisbane-born but Sydney-raised Viktorija Calusic will compete in both soccer and high jump for College of Charleston. A three-time New South Wales All Schools silver medallist in high jump whilst at Barker College, Calusic also competed for the school in both football and basketball, whilst playing her club football for North West Sydney Spirit in NPL New South Wales. The midfielder made her first grade debut in 2024 and made three appearances, but was ever-present in 2025 before leaving for college. Calusic made 21 appearances for the Spirit this season for a side featuring the likes of Sydney FC duo Skye Halmarick and Princess Ibini, as well as other A-League players including Bethany Gordon and Tiahna Robertson.
College of Charleston compiled a solid 11-4-5 record and banged home 42 goals in 2024, but a 4-2-4 record in league play saw the Cougars finish mid-pack in the CAA and fall to Elon in their conference tournament opener. With both their goals scored and goals conceded per game sitting in the top 50 in the nation, the Cougars would perhaps have expected to both finish higher in the league standings and also make a deeper run in the conference tournament. Fortunately, a lot of the team’s star players from 2024 return for the upcoming campaign, including many of the top scorers. The CAA is always a hotly contested league, but considering the Cougars made the jump from 2 wins in 2023 to 11 in 2024, they have every reason to be optimistic about the upcoming campaign.
Margaux Chauvet (Senior, Purdue, Wollongong)
A late addition to the College Matildas ranks, both in terms of the timing of her signing announcement and career experience, Sydney FC defender/midfielder Margaux Chauvet joins Purdue as probably the most established player to head to college since Amy Sayer joined Stanford in 2020. Ivorian-born to French parents, Chauvet moved to Australia at age 3 after her family was evacuated from Abidjan as rioters targeted French citizens. A Young Matildas and Junior Matildas camp invitee, Chauvet now has 30 A-League Women’s appearances under her belt for Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC (as well as an A-League Championship with the Sky Blues), plus a season in Iceland in 2022 with KR Reykjavik.
Purdue posted a 15-win season in 2021, but that was a rare highlight among six seasons of eight or fewer wins between 2018 and 2024. However, new head coach Richard Moodie led the Boilermakers to a 7-9-2 record last season after the team managed just three in each of the previous two campaigns. The former South Alabama head coach had plenty of success at his previous stop and has already made strides in the extremely tough Big Ten. The Boilermakers do return some big names, including leading scorer Chiara Singarella and defensive star Zoe Cuneio, and they will be hoping Singarella can improve on her five goals from last season and also get some additional scoring support from the rest of the team. Purdue finished among the lower reaches of the Big Ten for most offensive stats last season, and both Gracie Dunaway and Abigail Roy, who scored four goals apiece, completed their senior seasons in 2024. At the other end of the pitch, adding a player like Chauvet should provide the Boilermakers with a player who can not only break up opposition incursions, but also kickstart her own team’s attack.
Isabella Chidiac (Senior, Denver, Sydney)
Primarily a bench option for Denver over the course of her three seasons to this point, Isabella Chidiac made the first two starts of her collegiate career in 2024, whilst her minutes have progressively increased each year, which will hopefully culminate in a successful senior year for the Sydneysider. Chidiac has made 29 appearances in her three seasons for the Pioneers, but with the roster size being trimmed by a handful of players in 2025 after Denver opted in to the House settlement and its roster rules, there may be more opportunities available for the senior.
Denver expects to be contesting for the Summit League Championship every season, but have not won the conference title since 2020 despite reaching the semi-finals in each of the following four seasons. However, expect the Pioneers to be in the mix once again as they test themselves against no less than six power conference teams before heading into conference play. Transfers and graduations have left the cupboard a little bare in terms of goals, but second-leading scorer Liv Moritz returns after scoring five goals last year. In any event, reloading following transfers is part and parcel of life as a mid-major program, and the Pioneers have added a couple of their own to bolster the roster.
Claudia Hewitt (Freshman, Little Rock, Adelaide)
Little Rock’s pipeline from Australia continues to deliver, with South Australian Claudia Hewitt joining Candice Kilderry and Serenity Thake on the Trojans’ roster in 2025. Like Thake, Hewitt is a New Zealand junior representative, having received call-ups to the Under 20 national team. At club level, Hewitt has cut her teeth in NPL South Australia firstly with the Football SA program, and then with Modbury Vista and Flinders United, making almost 40 appearances for the latter’s first team since 2023. Hewitt’s signing also represents something of a rebirth of the pipeline from Australia to Little Rock, as a program that once had five Australians on the roster replenishes its numbers to three this year.
Little Rock have tallied seven wins in each of the last two seasons, but their league results have been good enough to reach the Ohio Valley Conference semi-final in both 2023 and 2024. One gets the feeling, though, that the Trojans will be a little fed up of falling a couple of games short of reaching the NCAA Tournament, particularly after securing the #2 seed before falling to #3 seed Lindenwood last year. Despite losing a few big-name players such as Abbie Smith, Camryn Jacobs, Sherry Saad, and Mykena Turner, there are just as many crucial players returning. Peyton Urban is the reigning Ohio Valley Conference Goalkeeper of the Year, whilst Amaya Arias and Candice Kilderry both earned All-Conference Second Team selections.
Jenny Hill (Sophomore, East Carolina, Sydney)
The younger sister of former Grand Canyon star Sandra Hill, Jenny Hill will also play her college soccer for a team clad in purple, joining East Carolina for 2025. A member of the Sydney University NPL New South Wales squad, Hill made her first grade debut for the Students in 2024, making eleven appearances before taking on a vastly increased role in 2025. Hill started 15 games before leaving for college, making a total of 21 appearances and tallying three goals for a Sydney Uni side sitting just shy of mid-table in NPL New South Wales.
East Carolina head into the 2025 season under a new head coach after Gary Higgins was lured to North Carolina State following three solid seasons leading the Pirates. However, new head coach Emily Buccilla is hardly a new face around the program, having spent the previous seven years as an assistant and becoming almost an obvious choice to step up following Higgins’ departure. Buccilla will have to find a way to make up for the eleven goals that Sydney Schnell and Abby Sowa have taken with them following their graduation, but the defence was rock solid last year, conceding only 1.02 goals per game, good enough for top 100 in the nation. Should they need a bit of time to get the attack firing again, that defence could stand them in good stead in the early stages. A few goals from midfield from someone like Hill, who has done just that at NPL level this year, wouldn’t go astray though!
Candice Kilderry (Junior, Little Rock, Melbourne)
Candice Kilderry had a true breakout year in 2024, starting in all 19 of Little Rock’s games after doing so just three times in 2023. However, that number tells very little of the story as the Victorian emerged as one of the first names on the team sheet for head coach Kelly Farrell. Kilderry finished the season with six goals and one assist to lead the Trojans with 13 points, including four game-winning goals. Kilderry also picked up an Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week award following an emergency deployment to the backline, further demonstrating her all-round ability as she finished the season with an All-Conference Second Team selection.
Little Rock compiled their second consecutive seven-win season in 2024, and also finished second in the OVC regular season standings with a 4-1-4 record in league play. Unfortunately, their season came to an end with a loss to Lindenwood in the conference semi-finals, but they still have plenty to build on from 2024. In a league with a crowded upper echelon, even a slight improvement in 2025 could put the Trojans on a path to a conference crown, and Kilderry looks set to play a major part.
Grace Mitchell (Senior, Seton Hall, Perth)
Following a promising freshman year in 2022 in which she made fourteen appearances including one start, injuries have unfortunately scuppered Grace Mitchell’s progress over the last couple of years. The Western Australian made 17 appearances in her freshman year, including one start, and averaged almost 40 minutes per contest. Unfortunately, after hitting the ground running for the Pirates, we have yet to see Mitchell on the pitch across the last two seasons, and hopefully that will change in 2025.
Seton Hall have not reached double-digits for wins since finishing 11-9 in 1999, but that is ancient history. Although the Pirates finished 4-12-3 in 2024, they are only a season removed from a 6-7-5 finish in 2023, which represents an improvement on most of their recent campaigns. 2024 saw the Pirates average just 0.58 goals per game, with star defender Chiara Pucci leading the scoring with three goals. Pucci has now graduated, but in any event, the team needs more output from its attack in 2025. However, the defence also leaked almost 1.6 goals per game last season, so improvement on both ends will be paramount.
Sarah Mitchell (Senior, Seton Hall, Perth)
Twins Grace and Sarah Mitchell have shared practically identical careers, both at club level and as Scotland Under 19 representatives. Unfortunately, that followed into injuries as, like Grace, Sarah has also missed significant playing time since 2022. With nine starts in 22 appearances during her freshman campaign, Mitchell looked set to become an integral part of the Seton Hall squad for seasons to come, but injuries had other plans. The Western Australian made two appearances of limited minutes in 2024 after missing the entirety of 2023, but hopefully Mitchell can make a return to the kind of role she had in 2022, if not an even bigger one.
Although Seton Hall have languished towards the bottom of the pack in the Big East for several years, head coach Josh Osit has secured a recruiting class ranked in the top 30 in the nation. Known throughout the northeastern United States for his recruiting, Osit spent time as an assistant at both Columbia and Rutgers before taking on the head coaching role at Seton Hall. With the Pirates now in their fourth season under Osit, hopefully they can make more sustained progress after falling back to four wins in 2024 after posting six in 2023.
Meg Roden (Junior, Providence, Canberra)
After two highly impressive seasons under Australian head coach Aaron McGuiness at High Point, Meg Roden has made the move to Big East outfit Providence as the Canberran looks to test herself at a higher level. Roden tallied four goals and an assist in her two years at High Point, during which she started in 26 of her 36 appearances. Most notably, 16 of those starts came in 19 appearances in 2024, as Roden averaged almost 75 minutes per appearance to finish seventh on the roster for total minutes.
Roden now heads to Providence looking to bolster the fortunes of a team playing in one of the toughest conferences outside of the Power 4. The Friars won 10 games in 2023, but dropped back to six wins in 2024 to miss the conference tournament a year after making an NCAA Tournament appearance. Goals were particularly hard to come by in 2024 as the team finished with just 0.94 per game, and someone will need to step up in 2025 as two of the team’s top three scorers are no longer with the team. Roden has notched two goals in each of her collegiate seasons to this point and can certainly chip in, but success in her midfield role will come as much from other players scoring as herself.
Iona Snape (Senior, Siena, Central Coast)
A staple of the Siena midfield, Iona Snape has helped lead the Saints’ progressive improvement over her three years with the program and comes into 2025 looking to lead her team to the promised land: a MAAC championship. A starter in 8 of her 16 appearances in her debut campaign in 2022, Snape has gone on to start in 32 of her next 37 appearances to develop into one of the first names on the teamsheet for the Saints. Although the Northern Tigers product has not scored a goal since her freshman year, Snape has tallied five assists across the last two seasons as she provides a quantifiable impact on the Saints’ attack.
Siena improved markedly from four wins in 2023 to ten wins in 2024, including a 7-3-2 record in conference play. However, after being knocked out of the MAAC tournament by a Manhattan team they had rolled 3-0 during the regular season, there will undoubtedly be a burning desire to make a deeper run in 2025. Last year’s improvement was built on the defence, which improved from 1.9 goals conceded per game in 2023 to just 1.1 in 2024. This can be partly attributed to the arrival of goalkeeper Cate Burns, who started 18 games as a freshman and immediately improved the team’s fortunes between the sticks. The confidence gained from having such a goalkeeper behind a team cannot be overstated, and this makes Siena a team to keep an eye on this year even before accounting for the fact that they have an Australian who is likely to be pivotal to any success.
Morgan Stanton (Freshman, Hampton, Cairns)
A star for Heartland Community College in 2024, Morgan Stanton will make the step up to NCAA Division I level in 2025 as the Far North Queensland product joins Hampton. A starter in 20 of 21 appearances for Heartland last season, Stanton banged home six goals and added 11 assists as the Hawks reached the NJCAA Division II semi-finals before falling to Montana-Rose Currey, Sophie Abbott, and Johnson County Community College on penalties. Nonetheless, it was an impressive campaign on both a personal and team level for Stanton, as Heartland finished with a 20-1-2 record.
Hampton’s team history is almost diametrically opposed to Heartland’s, having posted a grand total of 13 wins as a program since their inaugural season in 2015. However, three of those wins came last season, although two were against NCAA Division II opposition. Fortunately, of the four players who scored multiple goals for the Pirates last season, three will return in 2025. Add in Stanton’s ability to add to the attack, and 2024’s run of being shut out 9 times in their last 10 games could be ancient history for the Pirates. It won’t be a quick process to competitiveness in the CAA for Hampton, but there is the opportunity for steady improvement.
Serenity Thake (Senior, Little Rock, Gold Coast)
Although Serenity Thake has received call-ups from New Zealand at the junior level, the Queenslander is well and truly Australian; that can be judged from the flag choice in her preseason pictures alone. The Queensland Academy of Sport product has been an integral part of the Little Rock squad since the moment she set foot on campus, starting in 15 of her 17 appearances in her freshman year in 2022. Since that time, Thake has added another 35 starts and 38 appearances, and now has 3 goals and 7 assists to show for her efforts, leading to her selection to the Ohio Valley Conference watch list for 2025.
As mentioned in Candice Kilderry’s and Claudia Hewitt’s previews, Little Rock have been there or thereabouts in the Ohio Valley Conference over the last couple of seasons without making the impact in the conference tournament that they had hoped for. At some point, those building blocks have to turn into something bigger, and with integral members of the team such as Thake and Kilderry returning, the Trojans should hopefully find themselves continuing on an upwards trajectory. However, with conference heavyweight Lindenwood’s reclassification to NCAA Division I now complete a year earlier than anticipated, there is no backdoor entry to the NCAA Tournament should a team lose to the Lions in the conference championship game. Therefore, things will be even more cut-throat than they have been in previous seasons in a highly competitive league.
Eve Tiktikakis (Junior, Charleston Southern, Melbourne)
Following an impressive lone season at NCAA Division II outfit Florida Tech, which included 16 starts and a trip to the national semi-finals, Eve Tiktikakis made the move to NCAA Division I in 2024 and made seven appearances for Charleston Southern. However, although Tiktikakis played only 139 minutes across those appearances, some level of adjustment was always to be expected and the Victorian still has two years left to make more of an impact, starting with this season. As with every program, a number of the Buccaneers’ starters from 2024 have since graduated, opening up opportunities for players who didn’t see as much playing time last year.
Charleston Southern finished with 5 wins for the second time in 3 years in 2024, but sandwiched between those two campaigns was a 9-5-4 record in 2023. The Buccaneers had little trouble finding the back of the net last season, tallying 1.60 goals per game to finish just outside the top 100 in the nation, and finishing eighth in the nation for shot accuracy after putting 54.5% of their shots on target which offset the fact that they finished outside the top 200 for number of shots taken. However, a defence that leaked 1.93 goals per game put paid to any hopes of sustained success, and that will be the main area of focus in 2025.
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