FAYETTE, Iowa - A new season of Peacock women's soccer kicks off this week in Fayette as UIU welcomes Roosevelt (Ill.) and Southwest Minnesota State to Harms-Eischeid Stadium. The Peacocks face the Lakers on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. and the Mustangs on Sunday at 12 p.m.
Head coach Patrick Ritter returns for his second season at the helm of the program. His team brings in 13 players from the 2025 season with 17 new additions, 16 of which are freshmen. UIU has nine players back who played 800 or more minutes last season.
"It's always important to have a lot of returners to help guide us because we have so many new people," Ritter said. "I think having some of that leadership back is going to be important for us. Our hope is obviously not to require players to play that many minutes this year, trying to rotate them and keep them fresh throughout the season a little bit better. We think that will help their production go up too. Coming back with their leadership and understanding how we play is going to be a big part of us trying to get where we want to be."
Ritter and assistant coach Bradi Grabanski were busy recruiting this offseason, picking up 17 players from nine different states. The heaviest recruited state was Texas, where the staff brought in seven players.
"Our roster was a little small last year, and toward the end of the year, we saw injuries start to add up a little bit to the point where we were really thin by the end of the season," Ritter said. "We wanted to make sure that not only did we increase the quality we have, but we also had a full roster to make sure, health-wise, we could compete every day. A big part of that was getting enough freshmen who could push the returners and potentially start, but also having enough bodies so we can be competitive throughout every practice. We believe that will help us be more competitive in the games."
MEET THE PEACOCKS: FORWARDS
Familiar faces will lead the Upper Iowa attack as the team's top two scorers, Giovanna Alexa Garcia and Haylie Hutchinson, are back. Alexa Garcia scored a team-high three goals in 2025 while Hutchinson scored two goals with a team-high three assists.
Hutchinson has started 48 games in her Peacock career, and the team is hoping to find ways to continue to give her chances to score in 2026.
"We found players who could come in and start right away and add to the production we have up top, but they're also really good at connecting with other players. That was important with some of our new players up top. Not only can they score, but they know how to connect. That will get players like Haylie, Giovanna and Aeryn Hatico the ball more up there and in better positions."
Four of those players the Peacocks found that will help at the forward position are freshmen Aubrey Carlson, Maryn Hudson, Grace Kotewa and Layla Lindsey. Kotewa joins the team as one of its taller players at 5-foot-9.
"Grace is really tall, and she's able to win a lot of balls in the air," Ritter said. "That's something we were missing last year. We've always been a little bit on the shorter side as a team. Adding some bigger bodies up there that can win balls in the air is creating a lot of opportunities already. Whether that's them flicking the ball with their head or simply providing a visual target that we can find more easily up there, it allows us to start our offensive play through them."
MEET THE PEACOCKS: MIDFIELDERS
Jessica Ancheta and Melanie Mejia are both back after playing over 1,200 minutes last year. The Peacocks are looking to build more support around them in that room. Natasha Toxqui and Alyssa Torres will help do that as they enter their sophomore campaigns. Both women each started in five games as freshmen.
"Natasha came in as a freshman last year a little smaller, and she dealt with the injury bug a little bit," Ritter said. "She has put on a lot of strength and worked really hard in the weight room. We're expecting her to be very productive this year with what she can do, and she's going to be a very important piece for us."
Catherine Wolf is back for her junior season, and two freshmen, Suraya Alvarez-Holmes and Riley Ressler, will be in the mix in the midfield. The team is also looking to some West Coast talent in Kea Cabanilla-Ku, Mimi Moore, Emily Contino and Ava Talmadge-Anderson to bring depth to the room as well.
MEET THE PEACOCKS: DEFENDERS
Senior Stephany Castillo will lead the Peacock defense after playing 1,243 minutes last season. She will continue to help a group that also returns a pair of players who totaled over 1,000 minutes in 2025: Rhea Buchanan and Meghan Zwicker.
"Stephany is probably our best player at reading balls in the air and crosses and cutting them out," Ritter said. "The leadership she brings to the back line is going to be important. Last year, we moved Meghan and Rhea to outside back to fill in when we had some injuries, and now they've kind of made those positions their own. Meghan will still move around a little bit, but Rhea has found a new home there. I think having Stephany's leadership next to her helps because it gives her the confidence to go out, attack players one-on-one and know she has an upperclassman behind her who can still control and manage the game."
Newcomers Abigayle Bates, Ava Buman, Maddy Clark, Taylor Inocelda-Bihag and Ella Trotter will also have an impact on the back line. Inocleda-Bihag was the lone transfer added to the roster this season, coming from Ritter's former school of Bluefield University in Virginia.
"Her pace has been surprising to some of the women because she has been able to keep up with Haylie in practice," Ritter said. "When Haylie is on the ball, Taylor can stay with her and cut off crosses. That is going to add a different element to our back line. Players won't be able to get behind us as easily because we have the pace of Taylor, Rhea and Meghan, who can all stay with opposing players."
MEET THE PEACOCKS: GOALKEEPERS
The Peacocks remain young in the goal, but they bring back two women who made starts as freshmen last season in Avery Harding and Sienna Johnson. Texas freshmen Audey Bollin and Suzette Orta were also added to the room in the offseason.
"Our goalkeeper room is more competitive than it has ever been," Ritter said. "It's a tough decision as a coach to determine who is the number one and who to go with. All of them have received minutes in our scrimmages to try to earn that spot. We have to go with someone who we feel the defense is confident in, who has been mentally locked in throughout the scrimmages and who is making big saves."
SCHEDULE PREVIEW
After the first two nonconference games this week at home, the Peacocks begin GLVC action at Missouri S&T, who made the tournament last season. After that, UIU travels to No. 9 Missouri-St. Louis, the reigning conference champions.
The team then hosts GLVC runner-up McKendree (Ill.) for the first home conference contest on Sept. 9. UIU also hosts a preseason ranked team this season as No. 21 Maryville (Mo.) comes to Harms-Eischeid Stadium on Sept. 23.
Our conference schedule starts very tough," Ritter said. "It will be important for us to use these nonconference games to lock down how we want to play, our movement, how we connect with each other and how we're going to score goals. The GLVC does not get any easier, so we have to make sure we are prepared to go into our conference opener at Missouri S&T on the road feeling confident that we can put our best foot forward and earn a result."
ABOUT THE LAKERS
The Peacocks traveled to Chicago last season for the program's first-ever meeting with the Lakers, losing 5-1. Roosevelt's Daisy Garcia put up a hat trick with three goals, all in the first half. The Lakers finished last season with a 5-12-1 record.
Garcia returns this season for her senior campaign after totaling 14 points in 2025. She is the only returner for the Lakers who scored in the double digits in points last season. Roosevelt will also have a new top goalkeeper after losing Roxy Herrera to graduation, who totaled 71 saves last season.
Tom Czop enters his seventh season in 2026 as the head coach of the team. He also serves as the Associate Athletics Director at Roosevelt. Czop has a 30-55-22 record in six seasons with the Lakers, including four conference tournament appearances.
ABOUT THE MUSTANGS
The Peacocks picked up the first win of the Ritter era against Southwest Minnesota State last season, earning a 1-0 victory. Buchanan scored the game-winning goal in the 86th minute while Johnson shut the Mustangs out with four saves. UIU has won three straight games against SMSU dating back to 2021.
The Mustangs return 13 letter winners from the 2025 team that finished 3-15. The top of that veteran leadership appears on the defense in seniors Illjana Arbaugh and Sophia Sannek, who played a combined 1,954 minutes last season. Sophomore goalkeeper Kennady Krebs is also back after making 15 starts with 93 saves as a freshman.
Head coach Clay Glasgow is in his fifth season at SMSU with a 14-47-10 overall record. The Mustangs were picked 13th in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll, with junior forward Jada Backes and Sonnek named the team's players to watch.
