Prepared to Take the Pitch
August 15th marks a new era for the University of Miami soccer program as the team will take the pitch for their first regular season match under the direction of first-year head coach Ken Masuhr.
Since the announcement of his hire in December 2023, Masuhr has spent the last six months assembling and preparing a team to compete in one of the elite soccer conferences in the nation.
“The first thing we talked about was opportunity,” Masuhr said. “We have a lot of players who have NCAA experience in the transfers who came in. So, for them, it was really about an ability to test their skills in the elite soccer conference in the country and see what they are really made of.”
The Hurricanes added nine transfers and eight freshman to the roster in the offseason, including a Senegal National Team member in Dieynaba “JJ’ Ndaw (Duke), a Big-12 regular season champion in Gisselle Kozarski (Texas Tech) and a U20 Brazilian National Team member in Giovana Canali (rising freshman).
Despite all of the new faces, the team has found a rhythm and camaraderie both on and off the field.
“The transition has honestly better than anything I could have expected coming in,” graduate student Tori Grambo said. “I had high hopes coming in but it has surpassed them. The team has been really close, especially with all of the new girls coming in.”
Clicking on the field is extremely important for the Hurricanes this season as they look to improve on a 3-10-4 record posted in 2023.
But for Masuhr and his coaching staff, the first priority was getting buy-in from the team on the culture and reputation they wanted to build the program around.
“Throughout the spring, I had an idea of what I wanted the team to feel like and look like from a personality perspective, but we really dialed in on the things that are inherent in all high-functioning teams and we settled on discipline, selfness and relentless,” Masuhr said. “Fortunately for us, the group that is here wants that responsibility and wants to hold each other accountable to those things.”
And taking Miami to the next level is top-of-mind for many of the returners who are looking to reshape the program and leave their mark as a Hurricane.
“Everybody wants to prove that we have made a lot of progress in the past three weeks and that we are a new team and are on upwards trajectory form last season,” sophomore Sonia Neighbors said. “Preseason has been tiring and a lot of hard work, but it has been fun to bond with everyone and spend a lot of time together. I feel like we have a really driven team of people who are really passionate and want to move the program forward.”
Miami returns nine players from the 2023 roster, who account for 36 percent of the Hurricanes’ scoring last season – Julia Edwards, Claireese Foley, Caroline Hood, Emilie McCartney, Emma Pidding, Hallie Salas, Adrianna Serna, Reese Wheeler and Neighbors.
The Hurricanes played a pair of exhibition matches against FGCU and UCF in preparation for the 2024 regular season, but the real test will come on Thursday when they face North Florida in the season opener at Cobb Stadium.
“Being able to see the hard work that we have all put in and everyone being on the same page with Coach Masuhr is really exciting and I’m really looking forward to the season,” Grambo said.
