SAN ANGELO – The Belle Soccer team, the third-ranked team in Division II entering the fall season, look to continue the form they showed this past spring when they open their fall 2021 season next week with a pair of home matches against Colorado Christian and Colorado State-Pueblo, respectively.

The Belles outscored opponents this past spring 24-2, going a perfect 10-0 on the season en route to beating Dallas Baptist for the Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship, the Belles first tournament championship since 2018.
Head coach Travis McCorkle, the spring 2021 LSC Coach of the Year, returns 8,543 minutes of 10,315 total minutes played from last spring's team, or 82.8 percent of the total team's minutes played, including eight of their ten most-used players last spring, as well as all five of his All-LSC selections.

Cassidy Hill, who played a team-high 795 minutes this past spring despite missing one game, was named the conference's preseason defender of the year after being named the conference's defender of the year this past spring. Goalkeeper Kira Miller joined Hill in receiving preseason honors after being named the conference's preseason goalkeeper of the year.

Team captain Avery McNeme, the reigning three-time LSC Midfielder of the Year as well as the Player of the Year, returns for her fifth season as a Belle. The senior has 39 goal contributions in 67 career games for the Belles, including the tournament-winning goal this past spring against Dallas Baptist, which saw her named the tournament's MVP.

The Belles' top goal scorer and LSC Forward of the Year, Gabby Villagrand, scored six goals in six starts this past spring. The junior has scored ten goals in only nine career starts and is coming off a summer where she scored her first goal for the Panamanian Women's National Team.

The Belles first opponent, Colorado Christian, are coming off a spring season in which they went 2-5-1 overall and did not record a win away from home. The Cougars return their top goal scorer from this past spring, Kinley Sanders, who scored twice in the Cougars 2-1 double-overtime victory over Black Hills State back on March 5^th.

Sunday will see a matchup of conference champions when the Belles host Colorado State – Pueblo, the spring 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) tournament champions. The Thunderwolves, much like the Belles, went to overtime in both their tournament semifinal and tournament final matches, winning both games on penalty kicks. Pueblo return all players responsible for their 12 goals scored this past spring, including top goal scorer Litzy Serna, who contributed five goals as well as two assists.

Following this weekend's action, the Belles hit the road to Oklahoma for a pair of matches against Southwestern Oklahoma State and East Central.