Mary Baldwin soccer made history. Now it hopes for more with home playoff game Tuesday.
STAUNTON — When Amanda Evans arrived at Mary Baldwin to take over the women's soccer program, she looked at the USA South archives. The school joined the conference in 2007 and, in that span, the Squirrels had two conference wins and didn't have a single winning season. There were three seasons the team didn't win a match and one it didn't even play when the school shut down women's soccer in 2017.
So when Evans arrived from California in July 2018 she had her work cut out for her. She and her husband, Tony, were kind of a package deal. Amanda is officially the head coach and Tony is an assistant, but she said the two have worked together to rebuild this program from the ground up. They have coached together for 17 years and been married for 16.
The first year as coach, Amanda Evans led a club team as the Squirrels worked to bring back soccer. The next year the team won one conference game. The next it was two. Then four.
This year Mary Baldwin finished 6-3 in USA South play, good enough for third in the conference. Overall, the team is 12-6-1, only the second winning season since 2007 — the first was last year — and the most wins since joining the conference.
Anyka Wilkin is one of two seniors on this year's team. In 2019 she came to Staunton from Apopka, Florida. She wanted out of Florida, needing the independence and wanting to get away from the heat. Virginia was her choice.
"I loved the mountains. I loved the people. They're so much nicer. I loved the weather, that there's actually seasons," Wilkin said. "And then coach Amanda was really a selling point, her and Tony. They hooked me in basically two conversations."
It helped that Wilkin wants to be a physical therapist and Mary Baldwin offered a program in health sciences for her. She plans to go to Murphy Deming to get her doctorate.
"It was all around a perfect fit for me," Wilkin said. "And the fact that I could be a part of building a program was definitely a huge selling point."
She has helped do just that, taking the program from a perennial doormat in the conference to a team hosting a USA South tournament game Tuesday afternoon. Mary Baldwin will host No. 6 North Carolina Wesleyan at 2:30. Admission is free. Mary Baldwin just beat Wesleyan 1-0 on the road Saturday to clinch the third seed.
After Evans' first year at Mary Baldwin she wrote a four-year business plan on how the team would win a conference championship in four years. She gave it to the school's president, the provost and the athletic director. The team met every goal she set along the way and could still win the conference tournament this season.
"We have built the program to get to this point, so, in that sense, we saw this coming," Evans said. "What's exciting is this year we're only losing two seniors. Our incoming freshmen are really talented. We already have eight players committed for 2023. So we're in a position where it's not like, 'Oh, this is just a good year.' We have built a program so we're competitive and we're going to have a legacy."
Evans also gave that business plan to the players. Wilkin still has it in a binder in her room.
"She hammered it into our heads, this is what's going to happen, this is what you're going to do," Wilkin said. "So we came in this year and it was an expectation this year to make the playoffs. It's an expectation to get as far as we are going to go."
If Mary Baldwin wins Tuesday, they play in the semifinal round Thursday against the winner of the Brevard at Southern Virginia game. If that happens to be Brevard, MBU would host the semifinal game Thursday afternoon.
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Patrick Hite is Tht e News Leader's education reporter. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Mary Baldwin soccer made history. Now it wants more with home playoff game
