Author: Elise

Providence Day’s Blane McElroy and Pine Lake Prep’s Sadie Peterson led their teams to N.C. girls’ soccer championships this season. Today, they share The Charlotte Observer player of the year honors for 2025.

The All-Observer team represents the top players in the media company’s coverage area, which includes N.C. High School Athletic Association public schools and N.C. Independent Athletic Association private schools in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln and Union counties.

▪ McElroy — the 2024 N.C. Soccer Coaches and 2024 N.C. Gatorade player of the year — helped Providence Day win its fifth NCISAA 4A state championship in the last six years this spring.

A Princeton commit, McElroy scored 16 goals and had 21 assists while facing constant double-teams this season. She was named all-state and an All-American. The CISAA conference player of the year, McElroy led Providence Day to a 22-2-1 record as the Chargers ended the season ranked No. 1 in North Carolina by MaxPreps and No. 7 in America.

▪ Peterson, a junior forward committed to Clemson, had a school-record 54 goals plus 25 assists and led the Pride to the NCHSAA 2A state championship.

Peterson was named all-state, All-American and was the Catawba Shores 1A/2A player of the year. The N.C. Soccer Coaches Association named her state player of the year. Peterson returned to Pine Lake Prep after attending IMG Academy in Florida last season. Peterson helped the Pride (21-2) finish No. 2 in the state and No. 9 in the nation, according to MaxPreps. ▪ Ardrey Kell’s Kim Montgomery is the coach of the year for the second time in three seasons, after leading the Knights to their second NCHSAA 4A state championship in three years.

Montgomery’s team is used to being the favorite, but entered the 2025 4A state playoffs as the No. 12 overall seed after finishing third in the SoMECK 4A conference. However, Ardrey Kell won its last 13 games, powered by a defense that allowed only seven goals in the run. The Knights finished 23-3-4 this season.

All-Observer first team

FORWARDS

• Amaya Falzarano, Myers Park, Jr.: The Mustangs’ all-state junior forward scored 33 goals and had nine assists this season.
• Elise Larimer, Hough, Sr.: The Huskies’ all-state senior forward, a UNC Wilmington commit, scored 16 goals and had 20 assists this season.
• Dempsey McMahon, Charlotte Latin, Jr.: The Hawks’ all-state junior forward and University of South Carolina commit had 21 goals and 29 assists.
• Jordyn Miller, Charlotte Catholic, Sr.: The Cougars’ all-state forward, a Tufts commit, had 22 goals, four assists and was co-Southwestern 4A player of the year.
• Sadie Peterson, Pine Lake Prep, Jr.: The Pride’s all-state junior was named N.C. Coaches’ Association state player of the year. The Clemson commit had 54 goals, 25 assists.

MIDFIELDERS

• Avery Garrett, Pine Lake Prep, Sr.: The Pride’s all-state senior midfielder, a Campbell University commit, had 33 goals and 41 assists this season. Garrett finished her career as the school’s all-time leading goals, assists and points producer.
• Julia Grier, South Mecklenburg, Sr.: The Sabres’ senior, an all-state pick and Wofford College commit, led South Mecklenburg with 23 goals, nine assists. Grier was SoMeck 4A conference player of the year.
• Blane McElroy, Providence Day, Sr.: The Chargers’ all-state pick, a Princeton commit, was CISAA conference player of the year. She scored 16 goals, had 21 assists, and led Providence Day to its second straight NCISAA 4A state title.
• Ellie Riechman, Ardrey Kell, Sr.: The Knights’ all-state senior scored 18 goals, had 15 assists, and was the 4A state championship’s game’s most valuable player. Riechman, who has a 4.5 grade-point average, will attend the University of Colorado Boulder to study medicine.
• Kate Robinson, Lake Norman Charter, Sr.: The Knights’ all-state senior, a Catawba College commit, was South Piedmont conference player of the year and had 16 goals and 32 assists this season.

MIDFIELD/DEFENDERS

• Morgan Child, Charlotte Catholic, Sr.: The Cougars’ all-state defender also had three goals and four assists to help the offense.
• Abby Goldean, Providence Day, Jr.: The Chargers’ all-state defender also contributed 10 goals and seven assists. Goldean is a major Division I recruit, according to Providence Day coach Dan Dudley.

DEFENDERS

• Sadie Badgett, East Lincoln, Sr.: The Mustangs’ all-state senior center back, a Campbell University commit, led the East Lincoln defense to a school-record 17 shutouts. She scored 10 goals, had 11 assists and helped her team to its first 20-plus win season (21-3-3) in program history.
• Rylan Breath, Mountain Island Charter, Jr.: The Raptors’ all-state junior center back led a defense that had five shutouts in six playoff wins, allowing just one goal in that span. She also had 10 goals and six assists this season.
• Taylor Kleinschmidt, Ardrey Kell, Jr.: The Knights’ all-state center back led a defense that allowed just seven goals in the last 13 games, including just four scores in six playoff games this season. She is a major Division I recruit, according to Montgomery.
• Grace Maynard, South Point, Sr.: The Red Raiders’ all-state center back, a UNC Wilmington commit, was the Big South 3A conference defense player of the year. She scored two goals and had four assists for the 3A state runner-up team.
• Emma Milliron, Hickory Ridge, Sr.: The Ragin’ Bulls’ all-state senior center back, a Winthrop University commit, led the Hickory Ridge defense to 15 shutouts. She also scored five goals, had three assists and was named Greater Metro 4A conference player of the year.

GOALKEEPERS

• Riley Pickels, Hough, Jr.: The Huskies’ junior all-state goalkeeper, a N.C. State commit, had 100 saves, 21 shutouts and allowed only five goals all season. Pickels was QCAC goalkeeper of the year.
• Isabel Seifert, Davidson Day, Sr.: The Patriots’ four-time all-state senior goalkeeper is a University of Richmond commit. This season, she had eight shutouts and allowed only four goals. Seifert helped lead Davidson Day to its third straight NCISAA 3A state title. She also scored four goals and had seven assists.

Link to Article

The N.C. Soccer Coaches Association has released its all-state team for the 2025 season.

4A

• Paige Frasz (senior) Apex Friendship
• Taylor Kleinschmidt (junior) Ardrey Kell
• Ellie Riechman (senior) Ardrey Kell
• Peyton Case (junior) Asheville
• Sadie Hambright (junior) Asheville
• Kieran Bradley (junior) Ashley
• Savannah Manset (senior) Ashley
• Averie Morrison (junior) Athens Drive
• Sophia Juhasz (junior) Cardinal Gibbons
• Lola Ruzzeddu (junior) Chapel HIll
• Morgan Child (senior) Charlotte Catholic
• Jordyn Miller (senior) Charlotte Catholic
• Jaden Sink (senior) Davie County
• Emma Owens (senior) East Forsyth
• Leila Utate (senior) Fuquay-Varina
• Lilly Ridge (senior) Garner
• Allie Nelson (senior) Grimsley
• Landry Boyles (senior) Heritage
• Harper Donovan (senior) Heritage
• Emma Milliron (senior) Hickory Ridge
• Ava Trzebiatowski (junior) Hickory Ridge
• Avery Fishter (junior) Hoggard
• Reese George (senior) Hoggard
• Ellis Kelly (senior) Hoggard
• Reese Kula (junior) Holly Springs
• Elise Larimer (senior) Hough
• Riley Pickels (junior) Hough
• Madelynn Campbell (senior) Lake Norman
• Ella Speerschneider (senior) Leesvile
• Lucy Chin (sophomore) Marvin Ridge
• Jordan Davis (junior) Millbrook
• Sophie Wyshner (sophomore) Mount Tabor
• Lily Daniels (sophomore) Myers Park
• Amaya Falzarano (junior) Myers Park
• Kylie Guardado (freshman) Northern Guilford
• Morgan Stallings (senior) Northwest Guilford
• Anne Adams (senior) Page
• Anna Depenbrock (senior) Pinecrest
• Madison Detenber (senior) Providence
• Josie McLean (senior) Purnell Swett
• Caroline Alcala-Ruiz (senior) Riverside
• Lindsay Kinlaw (senior) Sanderson
• Julia Grier (senior) South Mecklenburg
• Caroline Wawak (senior) South Mecklenburg
• Kate Pratt (senior) T.C. Roberson
• Caitlyn Britt (senior) Wake Forest
• Abi Hoover (junior) Weddington
• Paige Santos (junior) Weddington
• Aislynn Maguire (senior) West Forsyth

A complete list of all divisions can be seen via the link to the article below.

Link to Article

Coaches

• Dan Dudley (Providence Day)
• Justin Schatz (Hoggard)

Players

Goalkeeper

• Isabel Siefert (Davidson Day)

Field Players

• Avery Johnson (Charlotte Country Day)
• Ellis Kelly (Hoggard)
• Blaine McElroy (Providence Day)
• Opal Redmond (AC Reynolds)
• Aislynn Maguire (West Forsyth)
• Sadie Badgett (East Lincoln)
• Lia Zimmer (Providence Day)
• Morgan Stallings (NW Guilford)
• Maggie Hyder (Charlotte Latin)
• Adriana Bonanno (Holly Springs)
• Avery Garrett (Pine Lake Prep)
• Caitlyn Britt (Wake Forest)
• Savannah Manset (Ashley)
• Mackenzie Flynn (Manteo)
• Elise Larimer (Hough) *out due to injury*
• Keira Taylor (Millbrook)
• Anna Dzielcki (Wake Forest)
• Abby Brinker (Eastern Alamance)
• Jordan Devoid (Hoggard) *out due to injury*

Link to Page

Before the 2025 season began, Hough High girls’ soccer goalie Riley Pickels said there were a lot of players on the team worried how things might go.

After three straight 20-win seasons, Hough was basically returning just three starters and was losing three players — Sarah Funderburk, Avery Rush and Kylee Thompson — who had scored 67 of the team’s 136 goals last year.

“I mean, we lost almost our entire starting lineup,” said Pickels, a junior committed to N.C. State. “But (new head coach Mike) Kutcher did a good job with settling all the rumors and he said, ‘I think you’ll be surprised by how well you’ll mesh together.’ He said, ‘If you put in the work, we can be a state championship team.’”

Heading into Tuesday’s game at Mallard Creek, Hough is 18-0-1 and has outscored opponents 114-5. The Huskies have 16 shutouts in 19 games.

“All we did is what we’ve always done,” said Kutcher, a former assistant at Hough. “We just plug people in when we lose folks, but the biggest question in the girls’ minds was, ‘You’re graduating (67 goals and 62 assists) from three players. Like, how do you make that up?’”

Kutcher graduated North Mecklenburg in 1999 and played on a boys’ state championship finalist when he was high school. He was an assistant at Hough when the Huskies’ won the 2014 title, the school’s second girls’ soccer state championship.

Kutcher stayed at Hough as a teacher, but coached girls at North Mecklenburg for seven years, from 2015-22. So he knew, very well, about the tradition that Smith had built at the school.

Smith retired from teaching and coaching after 32 years in March and was the only boys’ and girls’ soccer coach the school ever had. Smith coached in five state championship games since Hough opened 15 years ago, including three straight girls’ finals from 2012-14.

Smith won more than 600 games combined with boys’ and girls’ teams, including more than 500 at Hough, where he won 12 boys’ and 12 girls’ conference titles.

In fact, Smith once coached Kutcher in middle school.

“I knew we couldn’t let tradition die,” Kutcher said. “So I just said, ‘We can get those 75 goals we got from three players last year from 10 players this year.’ I said, ‘We can also give up less goals.’ Last year, we gave up (15). This year, we’ve given up five.”

Pickels has allowed three, but two were on penalty kicks and one was an own-goal.

“She hasn’t given up a legit goal all year,” Kutcher said. “That’s big to have.”

And just as he’d predicted, Hough’s tradition of plugging in the next player is also working.

Sophomore Olivia Miller (17 goals, 12 assists) leads the team in scoring. Miller had 31 goals and 14 assists, mostly on the junior varsity as a freshman last year. Junior Ava Hauser has 12 goals and 16 assists, up from five goals and six assists last year. Freshman Campbell Schmidt has 10 goals and five assists. And senior Elise Larimer, who missed most of last year with shoulder surgery, has 16 goals and 20 assists.

“We’ve been pretty good,” Kutcher said.

Here’s how good.

Hough didn’t as much as trail in a game until it got down by a goal to Ardrey Kell a couple weeks ago with 10 minutes to play. Hauser hit the post with a potential game-tying goal. Everybody got down.

“I said, ‘We’ll get another one,’” Kutcher said.

With two minutes left, Hauser scored to tie the game.

Despite its success, Hough is ranked outside the top 20 in North Carolina. Part of that is the schedule. The Huskies’ conference, the Queen City 3A/4A includes three teams that have seven or fewer goals, total, for the season. So outside of Hopewell (13-5-2, 10-1), most of Hough’s conference games are lopsided.

That’s led Kutcher to find different ways to keep his team focused.

“One of our mottos is, every week, no matter who we play, we want the practices against ourselves to the toughest game we have,” Kutcher said. “We should be our toughest opponents.”

Often, Kutcher said, Huskies’ players will stay after practice for additional work and Kutcher said he pushes them hard to avoid developing bad habits and to keep their focus sharp.

Hough has five regular-season games left, including a game at home against Hopewell May 6 that will decide the league title, but more and more, the Huskies are starting to hone in on a deep playoff run not too many of them were sure was possible back in February.

“I think we can go as far as we want to go as long as we continue to put the work in,” said Pickels, the junior goalie. “We’ve got a few good games coming in and the main thing is really getting your mind right. But I think we’ve got a chance.”

Link to Article

Elise Larimer was named “Player of the Match” for her 1 goal and 3 assist performance in Hough’s 9-0 victory over North Mecklenburg.

Link to Box Score

Video available in original article linked below.

By J. Mike Blake , HighSchoolOT Contributor

Hough scored four times in the first 20 minutes with each one coming in five-minute intervals. Hough has outscored its opponents 75-4 this season.

CORNELIUS, N.C. — New coach, new players, same results.

No. 3 Hough looks every bit the team that it was a year ago when it lost just once in the regular season.

The Huskies girls soccer team routed No. 12 Mooresville by a 7-0 score at home on Friday.

Hough, ranked third in the state, is now led by coach Mike Kutcher, who took over after David Smith retired. The Huskies (12-0) also lost their top three scorers from a year ago.

But facing Mooresville (4-3-1), ranked 12th in the state — and also a 4A West regional finalist last year — Hough scored four times in the first 20 minutes with each one coming in five-minute intervals. Hough has outscored its opponents 75-4 this season.

Sofia Troya got things rolling with a rebound in the box following a corner kick in the fifth minute. Five minutes later, Ava Hauser laid a perfect ball for Olivia Miller to slot in for a 2-0 lead. The score was 3-0 in the 15th when Elise Larimer poked one over the goal mouth off a deflection from Miller. Hauser struck a cross from 30 yards out that perfectly met the foot of Miller in front of goal in the 20th.

Although Hough missed a PK following a Mooresville hand in the box, the Huskies added one for good measure just before halftime as Miller, a sophomore, got her second assist of the half as her cross went between the keeper’s arms and onto the foot of freshman defender Campbell Schmidt.

In the first half alone, Miller had two goals and two assists and Hauser had two assists.

Hauser got her first goal early in the second half, netting a 44th-minute goal unassisted.

Freshman Keira Lange rounded out the scoring in the 75th minute as her free kick beat the wall and went just inside the far post.

Mooresville’s bright spot was anytime they could get the ball on the feet of sophomore Macie Cline. The Blue Devils did not possess the ball for long stretches of the game and only managed less than a handful of shot attempts.

BOX SCORE
MVL 0-0 0
HOU 5-2 7
Goals: Sofia Troya (HOU ‘6), Olivia Miller (HOU ’10), Elise Larimer (HOU ’15), Olivia Miller (HOU ’20), Campbell Schmidt (HOU ’34), Ava Hauser (HOU ’44), Keira Lange (HOU ’75)
Assists: Ava Hauser (HOU ’10), Olivia Miller (HOU ’15), Ava Hauser (HOU ’20), Olivia Miller (HOU ’34)

Link to HighschoolOT Article

Elise Larimer was named “Player of the Match” for her 2 goal and 1 assist performance in Hough’s 9-0 victory over Mallard Creek.

Field Stats

Link to Box Score

Elise Larimer was named “Player of the Match” for her 1 goal and 2 assist performance in Hough’s 4-2 victory over Myers Park. This was Hough’s 1st victory over Myers Park in 13 years.

Field Stats

Link to Box Score

The North Carolina Soccer Coaches Association (NCSCA) has recognized The Brittany as the “Best High School Soccer Event in North Carolina” and was created to remember and celebrate Brittany Willis.

The Brittney Story

On June 28, 2004, Brittany Willis, a beautiful, bright, promising young woman was enjoying an uneventful summer afternoon returning a high school graduation present at a gift shop in Wilson, NC. Her life was suddenly and tragically cut short as she became a victim of horrific, random violence. This daughter, sister, granddaughter, and friend was a treasure, and her memory will forever be a part of the lives of those who knew and loved her.

Throughout her life, beginning with the Wilson Recreation Soccer program, Brittany played and cherished the game of soccer. She was an All Conference player her junior and senior year of high school, and enjoyed the honor of being the Captain of the Hunt High School Warriors during her senior year. Her love of team sports led her to the volleyball court, where she was honored as Best All Around, and to compete on the cross-country team, where she earned the Sportsmanship Award while she represented the Warriors.

An intelligent and honorable student, Brittany enjoyed the distinction of being identified as an All Academic Athlete every year of her high school career. She was a member of the National Honor Society, was a Key club officer, sang in the school chorus, was a member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the Student Government Association, and was the Pepsi Scholar Athlete each year while at Hunt High School.

Sportsmanship Award

As part of the event during each game the referees choose one player from each team to recognize with a sportsmanship award. This weekend Elise Larimer was chosen during her game against Brittney’s high school team, Hunt; and her future UNCW teammate (and roommate) Emily Degnan was chosen while playing Ardrey Kell.

US Youth Soccer revealed the 2025 ODP National Select Team rosters across the 2007-2012 age groups. See below for a look at the 2007 Girls squad, which will travel to Spain this summer.