ROCK HILL, S.C. – Six Eagles of Carson-Newman women's soccer were awarded All-South Atlantic Conference honors, the league office announced Tuesday. This marks the most All-Conference awards for Carson-Newman women's soccer since 2017 when there were seven athletes honored.
Senior forward Emilee Futrell (Wilson, N.C.) and sophomore midfielder Addie Henry (Chattanooga, Tenn.) highlight the first-team selections with their spring 2021 efforts.
The Eagles boast their highest number of 2021 All-Conference selections on the second team as senior defender Lira Mathes (Knoxville, Tenn.), junior defender Jente Kuper (Ottersberg, Germany) and freshman midfielder Savannah Fields (Johnson City, Tenn.) earn selections and honors.
Freshman goalkeeper Lilly Ebner (Hohentengen, Germany) is the lone Eagle to make the honorable mention All-Conference squad as she started in all seven Eagles matches throughout spring 2021.
"I'm really happy for all the girls who received this honor. As a coach, I was kind of skeptical that we would be able to get one game played because you never know when you can have the rug pulled out from under us," head coach Simon Duffy said. "Having being shut down once and then coming back from that, I'm really happy and proud of the girls who represented this team and were named to All-Conference teams."
Futrell was also named the South Atlantic Conference Offensive Player of the Year after her outstanding efforts on the field. This is the first SAC Offensive Player of the Year honor for an Eagle since former All-American Magda Mosengo collected the laurel after the 2018 season. Futrell finished her season tied for the SAC lead in goals with Ria Acton of Lenoir-Rhyne with six apiece while also holding the second most shot attempts with 34, a SAC-leading three game-winners, and was the SAC leader for points as she compiled an impressive 13 through seven games of action. Due to her efforts, Futrell garnered SAC Player of the Week honors on March 31.
"Feels great and I'm super happy to get honored," Futrell said.
This is Futrell's third year of receiving All-Conference honors but first time being awarded first-team honors. Her last two seasons saw the Wilson, N.C. native awarded second-team honors. In her Eagles career, she has found the back of the net an impressive 33 times. This places her in eighth for C-N history for career goals, only one right behind former C-N assistant and current Auburn-Montgomery head coach, Jules Herrity. Despite the shortened and unusual season setup, Futrell was only three goals from her usual nine, as she landed six goals to lead the SAC heading into tournament play.
This season, Futrell led the team in goals (6), points (13), shots (37), shots on goal (20) and game-winning goals (3). She played and started in all seven Eagles games.
"I've had the opportunity to see Emilee develop and grow as a player over the last four years. She's grown and matured a lot especially as she has turned into a leader and a player coach on the pitch as well," Duffy said. "She has a drive within herself to continue to get better. Hopefully she'll be able to continue to grow and come back in the Fall as a stronger player."
Henry has been a consistent presence for the Eagles midfield through the spring 2021 season. Much like Futrell, she started and played in all seven games for C-N. The Chattanooga native collected a brace to secure her two 2021 goals against Tusculum on March 22. The midfielder rocketed off a shot from 40 yards out to wrap up her brace at Pioneer Field. Last season, Henry was named to the honorable mention All-Conference squad after her freshman season.
Henry added an assist on her season to total her points to five. She was second on the team behind Futrell with 18 shot attempts while seven of her attempts find the frame to place her third on the squad. Henry finished in a tie for third on the team with her two goals alongside Fields.
"I'm really thankful for the players and their effort put forth. Everything we've faced with the circumstance this season, I'm extremely proud of them," Duffy said. "We have almost our entire team coming back plus three new weapons we'll bring on in the Fall. With everything that happened this spring, we're really happy to have played and really optimistic for the Fall."
One of the pinnacles of C-N finding success throughout the spring was the defense, led by second-team selections Kuper and Mathes.
Mathes made sure to make her last season as an Eagle as memorable as possible. The Knoxville, Tenn. native found the back of the net three separate times in 2021, including a brace against the Mars Hill Lions on March 4 from McCown Field. The senior also was nearly perfect with her shot attempts as she took five shot attempts and had four find the frame. However, her most notable contribution is keeping opponents in control for the majority of games. As part of the Eagles backline, Mathes helped C-N secure two shutouts (Mars Hill and Tusculum) and held C-N opponents to a .121 shot percentage.
Mathes was assisted in the backline by senior Markfort. Markfort sees her second straight second-team All-Conference laurel after receiving the same honor in 2019. This year, Markfort started in five of the seven games for C-N and was an imposing threat for opponents to face. She was a crucial key to opponents only collecting 23 total points throughout the spring season while helping C-N keep opponents to only scoring eight goals on 66 shot attempts.
The final second-team selection is a new Eagle who wasted little time making an impact in Savannah Fields. Fields netted her first career goal as part of the 6-0 domination of Mars Hill from McCown Field on March 4. The freshman then continued her success with another goal in the following game to push C-N ahead for good and to a 5-0 victory against Tusculum on March 22. Her two goals tie her in third on the team with first-teamer Addie Henry. Field also shot the third-most attempts for C-N wither 10 attempts and six of those being on goal.
"We've had a couple freshman start and play in all our games this year," Duffy said. "The future looks bright for this team. When these younger players have their peers to look up to and learn from the future is bright for this program."
To wrap up the All-Conference laurels for Carson-Newman, we turn to the goal-minder for 473:13 of the total 551:29 minutes of action C-N faced. Freshman goal-minder Ebner was thrusted into a three-way competition for the starter position with fellow freshman Jenna Rehm (Old Hickory, Tenn.) and sophomore transfer Hope Doyle (Harrison, Ohio).
Once in action, the Germany native allowed seven goals and held a goals against average of 1.33. Ebner collected 28 saves and was deemed the winning goalie for three of C-N's four victories (Doyle collecting the win against Mars Hill on April 1). With her save percentage of 0.800, the freshman tied Jasmine Rizk (2019) with the seventh-highest save percentage in a single season for a C-N goalkeeper.
