The Campbellsville University women’s soccer team won the Mid-South Conference Championship on Nov. 11 against the University of the Cumberlands, which put them in the NAIA national tournament. CU was eliminated in the first round, losing 2-1 against Xavier University of Louisiana. While their season may not have ended the way the team wanted, it doesn’t make them bitter in defeat. For most, it’s a period to slow down for a bit to focus on grades and spend time outside of soccer before they prepare for next season. For some, it’s looking towards the future as to what’s next after living the student-athlete lifestyle at CU.
Senior Alex Glennie, who came to CU from Montrose, Scotland in 2022, was only able to see the school virtually, but she felt it was the right place for her.
“When I was on my zoom call with the coaches, I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the team immediately,” said Glennie. “From what I could see, I thought it looked like a great campus that seemed welcoming even on a video call. I can’t really put it into words other than it felt right for me, even if it is 20 hours away from home.”
Glennie is majoring in health/physical education and minoring in sports management to become a teacher and potential soccer coach herself. Most of the women on the roster are from outside the country. Glennie said it brings them closer together.
“We all get along extremely well. For me, personally, it’s a second family,” she said. “We’re there for each other no matter what someone is going through. We support one another in the lows and celebrate all together as a team in the highs. One teammate that sticks out to me is Macie Chappell. Macie has been there for me when I struggle and when I persevere… Having her and all the rest of the girls is what makes us a special team.”
According to Glennie, winning the Mid-South Conference was a significant moment for her and the team.
“Winning that game makes all the hard work and struggles I’ve been through worth it,” she said. “It felt so rewarding and like true happiness. I still talk about it every day, that’s how much it means to me. It’s one of those things that just sticks with you.”
Thinking about graduation in the spring, Glennie has advice for her underclassmen teammates and incoming players.
“Enjoy the time you have here as well as trust the process to get to where you want to be,” she said. “Not every moment in college will be the best time of your life because you’re going to struggle, especially being an athlete or just deeply involved. While you may have those thoughts of wanting to quit or go home, overall, I think college life here is great. You almost need to go through those moments to get the full experience. You may not know when your wins will come but enjoy the process it takes to eventually get there.”
Leading the women’s soccer team is first-year Head Coach Trey Henderson. Henderson is a graduate of Reinhardt University where he played soccer all four years. Before coming to CU, he was assistant coach at Georgia Gwinnett University from 2019-24, where he helped lead the team to two Continental Conference Championships, two Association of Independent Institutions Championships and five NAIA National Tournament appearances.
“I think honestly something that I wanted to continue here is the culture aspect of what was inside of the team and seeing the girls very connected and friendly,” Henderson said. “Seeing the sideline players come together just seem very cohesive together, and very unified and that was something that I wanted to add on and continue to implement in my role. Coming up here, it was a tough decision obviously to leave Atlanta and a lot of friends. But I knew that it was an extraordinarily strong program with a lot of great resources here on campus with great facilities and a lot of great people here. It’s been fun.”
Like Glennie, Henderson also believes that being a diverse and international team is a strength to their success.
“Soccer is a universal language. So even though there are sometimes language barriers or things get lost in translation a little bit, once you get on the field all of that disappears,” Henderson said. “Something that I think is unique here is that we’re so internationally focused and we have people from all over the world. We also have a lot of players that are in the same boat as me who are away from friends, family and loved ones. To be able to have that distance be existing itself, it makes the bond within the team that much stronger. It makes some of those troubles and some of those things that happen on the pitch a lot easier to navigate knowing you have those relationships.”
Henderson said winning the Mid-South Conference Championship was a huge moment for the team and him personally as his first year being head coach.
“I think last year it was a very difficult recruiting year going into this year,” he said. “We had 15 players that we were graduating, seven of which were starters. So, we knew that we had a lot of work to do to just recoup not only the ability that we were losing on the pitch, but also the leadership and experience. So going into this season, we were going to have a young and new team. For us to go out and do what we did this season and in the conference tournament, that showed a huge step up in their maturity in the way they’re growing and developing.”
While their season may have ended earlier than they expected, Henderson said he wants his players, especially his seniors, to take one main thing from this year: Belief.
“Anything is possible. Going into that conference tournament, a lot of teams were writing us off,” Henderson said. “A lot of them saw us lose to Cumberland and Cumberlands by four goals and thought we didn’t stand a chance. Understanding that if you’re focused and if you have belief, anything’s possible. We proved that as we went into the latter part of the season. You really work hard and look to assess yourself in a positive way… There are so many aspects about this game that translates and transcends sports.”
