ELON, N.C. – As with every August, the Elon University women's soccer team reported to campus, eager to get to work and show competitors what it's made of. 

"I think that the group is hungry to get back into the season," head coach Neil Payne said. "There's a competitiveness I'm seeing about them. They're getting after each other every day, which obviously will prepare them for any game they face."

The makeup of the 2024 Phoenix squad is a bit different than years past. Over half of the roster is underclassmen with 10 sophomores – the largest class – and seven freshmen. 

Payne said he is impressed with the improvements he's seen so far from the sophomore class. 

"I think what we're starting to see with that group is a maturity in the game, and they look like they've had years worth of college experience," Payne said. "They're managing the game better, they're making better choices, they're not putting us in difficult situations."

Forwards Grace Gelhaus and Lauren McCauley are part of the sophomore core, but both said they enjoy being in a bigger class. 

"I think that having a big class can either be a good thing or a bad thing, but for us, it's a good thing," McCauley said. "We're all super close, and we all push each other to get better every single day, whether we're working on the field or working off the field recovering from an injury."

Both McCauley and Gelhaus found success within their freshman seasons, appearing in all 17 games for the Phoenix, with McCauley logging 924 minutes and Gelhaus logging 1238 with 15 starts.

"Last year was definitely a growing season for us, and us as a class," Gelhaus said. "We worked on getting closer off the field and getting to know each other, and I think having a year under our belts has really helped us."

Gelhaus tied for the team lead of 12 points last season and led in assists with four, earning her a spot on the All-CAA rookie and third teams. Prior to this season, both Gelhaus and graduate student defender Katie Lowe were named All-CAA honorable mentions, but Gelhaus credited her team for making these accolades possible.

"A lot of it is just the team around me," Gelhaus said. "I can't say that I would have gotten any of those awards without all of the girls pushing me outside of soccer and pushing me in soccer, in the weight room, on the field, training. I've really grown as a player and as a person having them all around me."

Not only have McCauley and Gelhaus stepped up on the field, but also off the field, mentoring the freshmen who stand in the same place they did only a year ago.

"The freshmen have come in and really hit the ground running with how they've added to our team culture on the field," McCauley said. "They've added so much to our competitiveness and as people who they might look up to, it's important to set a good example and also be there for whenever they need us, ask us any questions, because we were just in their shoes."

As for team leadership, Payne said senior midfielder and newly appointed captain Kennedy Jones sticks out. 

"Kennedy is consistently one of the top three of the hardest working players on any given day," Payne said. "The maturity in Kennedy's game right now is clear to see. We traveled to Portugal in the spring and played against the professional team, and Kennedy was as good as anybody on the field. I think our younger players can get confidence from Kennedy."

"Kennedy Jones has been a really big role model for us," McCauley added. "She does a lot of work on and off the field, and she puts a lot of effort in making us come together off of the field and do team bonding."

Along with appointing Jones, Payne also bolstered the coaching staff in the offseason, adding two new assistant coaches – Clifton Bush and Jen Thomas. 

"[Clifton Bush] has brought some fresh ideas, different spins on things in our preseason that we haven't really thought about before, and it's been really helpful, particularly in our structure of the way we want to play…a big part of us hiring Jen was her experience that she brought just to remind players of how intense you need to play, how competitive you need to be, how determined you have to be every time you step on the training field, " Payne said.

So far this preseason, Elon has found its stride, beating USC Upstate and East Carolina University. The win over the Pirates marked Elon's first since 2002 and showed what Payne described as a collective resilience from the Phoenix.

"When you're defending a 1-0 lead, you've got to show resilience, you've got to show grit and determination and you've just got to get through those difficult periods," Payne said. "I felt like we did that against East Carolina, and I'm not sure last year, if we were in the same situation, whether we would have won that game."

The Phoenix will begin regular season play at Rudd Field on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. against George Mason University.

"Working on our mentality in team chemistry has been talked about a lot because we talked about it last year, but it didn't really translate into the game," Gelhaus said. "Going into spring and then over the summer and now into the fall season, we've been really focusing on that and it's been showing during practices and during games. It's just really competitive, which is really going to help us win games."

THREE THINGS TO KNOW:

AMAZING GRACE
After her stellar freshman campaign, in which she tied for the team lead in points with 12 and led the team with four assists, Grace Gelhaus was named to the CAA All-Rookie team and CAA All-Third team. She was also selected as an All-CAA honorable mention for the 2024 season.

YOUNG CORE
Of the 28 members on the women's soccer roster, 17 of them are underclassmen. The sophomore class, the largest class on the team, has 10 players and the freshman class has seven.

CUTTING-EDGE COACHING
The Phoenix added two new faces to the coaching staff this offseason, assistant coach Clifton Bush and volunteer assistant coach Jen Thomas. Bush has coached at both the collegiate and professional level and was the head coach at UNC Asheville from 2019-21. Thomas joins the Elon staff after coaching at Real Colorado since 2010. 
 

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'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Chase Strawser at cstrawser@elon.edu.

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