ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Catawba College women's soccer program led the South Atlantic Conference with seven all-conference honorees highlighted by three major award recipients in the league's postseason awards announcement on Wednesday.
Bree Ehmer has gone back-to-back as the SAC Offensive Player of the Year, while fellow senior Ali Skinner secured the SAC Defensive Player of the Year award. For the fourth time in his career – and the past six years – head coach Nick Brown is the SAC Coach of the Year. Ehmer and Skinner were joined on the All-SAC First Team by Cadence Setzer, Ella Matthews and Lucy Hack. Rounding out the Catawba contingent are Kennedy McGuire and Reese Robinson as Third Team selections.
With all eyes on Ehmer after her 2025 D2CCA National Player of the Year selection, she continued to grow her legacy by jumping into second on Catawba's all-time scoring list. The Melbourne, Fla., native finished the regular season with 10 goals and four assists while scoring eight times in conference play alone. She has recorded four multi-goal matches including a hat trick against Mars Hill (9/12). In active career standings across all three NCAA divisions, Ehmer's 54 goals rank third and her 128 points are good for fourth.
Skinner recorded 10 complete games on the Catawba back line with a team-high 1,376 minutes played while starting all 17 regular-season matches. She has contributed to the blue and white's elite +26 goal differential by locking down the defensive half and scoring four goals on the attacking end. By claiming the conference's top defensive award, she adds to Catawba's streak of dominance as the sixth DPOY in the last eight seasons.
Brown, the all-time wins leader in Catawba women's soccer history, led the Catawba Indians to their eighth straight SAC regular season crown. The blue and white clinched the hardware with two weeks left in the regular season, a testament to the squad's outright dominance. Since Brown's fifth season at the helm in 2019, Catawba has lost one or fewer SAC contests each year with a magnificent 62-4-12 record. The group of eight all-conference honorees gives Brown a total of 60 selections in 12 seasons for a remarkable average of five per year.
Setzer was the second highest vote-earner among forwards as she and Ehmer created a lethal 1-2 attacking punch. The Shelby, N.C., product is the league's most prolific distributor with 11 assists, ranking ninth in national standings, in addition to her six goals. Setzer has contributed to the most Catawba goals on the team, having a hand in 17 of the side's 48 strikes. She occupies the No. 4 position in program history for assists, needing five more to tie the record.
Matthews led all midfielders in all-conference voting as she continued to expand her role in the Catawba offense with seven goals and five assists. She started all 17 regular season matches, racking up 19 points to place third on the team as her 13 points against SAC opponents trailed only teammates Ehmer and Setzer. Matthews brought the hammer down on rival Wingate (10/3) with a brace in the first half en route to her first career hat trick.
Despite suffering a season-ending injury in early October, Hack's heroics across 11 matches were crucial to the Catawba Indians' enduring success. The Plymouth, England, native served as the backbone of the defense with eight 90-minute caps. With Hack on the field, Catawba allowed just three goals to six SAC opponents as her defense was key in shutouts of conference foes Newberry and Emory & Henry.
McGuire's role went from solid reserve to valuable starter midway through her rookie campaign in which she bagged eight points on two goals and four assists in the regular season. Among the Queen City product's top performances included a two-helper affair in the win at Tusculum (9/27) and netting the deciding goal of a pivotal road win over Lenoir-Rhyne (10/7). She is the first Catawba Indian to earn All-SAC laurels as a true freshman since Ehmer in 2023.
Robinson started all but one regular season tilt as a veteran presence on an otherwise young team. She trailed only Skinner in minutes among field players and recently broke the 4k mark as the Huntersville, N.C., native has played 4,179 minutes of college soccer. Although she specializes in shutting down opposing offenses, Robinson chipped in her fourth career goal in a tense battle with Carson-Newman (10/24) this season.
The Catawba Indians look to keep rolling with a SAC Championship semifinal matchup against No. 4 seed Wingate on Friday, Nov. 6, at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex at Matthews. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.
