App State Soccer Renews Rivalry with Western Carolina in Season Opener

OPENING KICK: App State Soccer will kick off the 2025 regular season with a matchup against former Southern Conference rival Western Carolina Thursday at 6 p.m. in Cullowhee, N.C. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+.
 
ABOUT APP STATE: The Mountaineers are set to begin year four of the Aimee Haywood era. App State has qualified for the Sun Belt tournament each of the past three seasons and return graduate student Izzi Wood and sophomore Ellie Garrison who were the top two scorers on last year's team and were both named all-conference and all-region last season. The duo also earned All-Sun Belt preseason honors this year. App State will look to blend ten newcomers with 17 returners this season. The Mountaineers went 7-7-5 overall and 4-3-3 in Sun Belt play a season ago, securing back-to-back seasons of seven or more wins for the first time since 2015-2016 and back-to-back winning seasons in Sun Belt play for the first time since 2014-2015 (its first two years in the conference). The Mountaineers were picked to finish eighth in the Sun Belt conference preseason poll.
 
ABOUT WESTERN CAROLINA: Two-time defending SoCon regular season champions, the Catamounts open the 2025 season picked to win the league for the third consecutive season, garnering nine of the ten first place votes in the conference preseason poll. Western Carolina earned six of the 11 spots on the All-Southern Conference preseason team, highlighted by reigning SoCon Defensive Player of the Year senior Ava Robitaille. The Catamounts posted a 15-3-3 record overall last year and went unbeaten in SoCon play with a mark of 8-0-1, outscoring their opponents 52-10.
 
SERIES HISTORY: Former Southern Conference rivals, App State and Western Carolina have met 15 times in head-to-head play, with the Catamounts leading the all-time series 11-3-1. The two teams last met in conference play in 2013 with the Catamounts winning 1-0 at home. App State's most recent victory in the series was a 1-0 triumph in Boone in 2012. The two teams were scheduled to face off in 2023, but a pregame thunderstorm led to a cancellation.
 
INCREDIBLE IZZI: Graduate student Izzi Wood returns for her final season of eligibility in 2025. The sixth-year standout has played 70 matches across four seasons, while missing the 2021 campaign due to injury. Wood is coming off a career-high 11 goals in 2024, which matched the single-season program record. She enters the 2025 campaign with 26 career tallies, five away from setting the App State career goals record, currently held by Casey Cleary (2005-08). Last season Wood led the Sun Belt in shots (80) and shots on goal (41) while ranking third in the conference in goals scored (11) and in points (23). She also finished the season tied for third in the league in game-winning goals (3). Wood has been named All-Sun Belt and All-Southeast Region each of the past two seasons and was picked to the Sun Belt preseason all-conference team this season for the second straight year.
 
ELITE ELLIE: A second team All-Sun Belt selection as a true freshman in 2024, Ellie Garrison enters her sophomore season poised for another breakout campaign. The Trinity, N.C. native played and started all 19 games in her first season in Boone, registering four goals and five assists. Her combined 13 points were the most by an App State freshman in the Sun Belt era. Garrison scored her first two goals of the season against Longwood on Aug. 29 and was subsequently named the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 3. She finished the season with 50 shots, including 22 shots on target. Garrison was named an All-Southeast Region selection following the season and was ranked as the 49th-best freshman in the country by Top Drawer Soccer. Garrison has already collected accolades this season, garnering preseason All-Sun Belt honors, while also being named a national Midfielder to Watch by United Soccer Coaches.
 
HAYWOOD AT THE HELM: Through three seasons in Boone, head coach Aimee Haywood has posted the best winning percentage of any coach in program history. Despite being picked to finish 13 out of 14 teams in the 2022 preseason poll, Haywood guided her team to a seventh-place finish in her first season. In 2023, despite being picked to finish eighth, the Mountaineers finished in third place, their best conference finish in program history. Haywood has helped the Mountaineers to back-to-back winning seasons in Sun Belt play for the first time since 2014-15.
 
PROTECTING THE VALLEY: In Aimee Haywood's three seasons at the helm, the Mountaineers have been stout at home, compiling a record of 14-5-6 (.680), and outscoring their opponents 41-23 at The Valley over that span. The Mountaineers posted a program-best 13-match unbeaten streak dating back to 2022, prior to their home loss to Radford on Sept. 5.
 
FINDING TWINE: The App State offense has increased its scoring output in each of the past two seasons, scoring 27 goals (1.42 goals-per-game) in 2024, their best output since scoring 31 goals (1.55 goals-per-game) in 2016. The Mountaineers return each of their top five goal scorers (Izzi Wood, Ellie Garrison, Kyli Switalski, Shannon Studer and Olivia Simon) from a season ago.
 
FRESH FACES: App State enters 10 newcomers (all freshmen) into the fold in 2025. Four of those players are international, coming from England, Scotland and Sweden. Maddie Williams (Birmingham, England) was an early enrollee and participated in spring competition. Of the 17 returners, nine saw at least one start in 2024.
 
UP NEXT: App State will host the Miami Hurricanes on Sunday at 1 p.m. It marks the first meeting between the two programs and the first time that App State has hosted an autonomy conference opponent since 2021. The match will be broadcast on ESPN+.