The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team has officially begun preparations for the 2025 season. The Falcons arrived on campus and took part in several organizational meetings along with a photo/media day, and on Tuesday morning (July 29), head coach Chris Fox and Company held the first practice of the preseason schedule.
 

Fist bumps for the first practice! Time to get to work. #AyZiggy pic.twitter.com/Hf0hcEAcDR

— BGSU Women's Soccer (@BGSU_WSoccer) July 29, 2025

Fox and the Falcons welcome two new assistant coaches – Steven Samuel and Kyle Pettican – for the 2025 season, and the Orange and Brown have a total of nine newcomers on the roster.

That 2025 roster also includes a total of 20 returning student-athletes, including seven starters from a year ago.

Six of the top-nine point-scorers from the 2024 club, including junior Emma Stransky, who had the most goals (four) and points (10) among returnees. Stransky has scored five game-winning goals in her first two seasons with the Falcons.

Fellow juniors Emme Butera and Taylor Green each return after starting all 18 games a year ago. Butera scored seven points en route to earning All-MAC Second-Team honors, while Green anchored a BG back line that kept six clean sheets.

Another junior, Michelle Hochstadt, led the Falcons with five assists in her first season in Northwest Ohio. The Morehead State transfer made 12 starts.

In goal, Payton O'Malley returns after starting the final nine matches of her freshman season and recording a 1.56 goals-against average and a pair of shutouts. Fellow sophomore Haley Wolf also started the last nine contests and joined O'Malley on the MAC's All-Freshman Team.

Redshirt junior Emily Hollar and true juniors Lizzie Bultynck, Christine Erdman and Lexi White are back for 2025. Erdman made 10 starts last season, while Hollar scored three goals to rank third on the team a year ago.

Redshirt sophomore Kaley Simqu and true sophs Lilly Boebel, Lauren Mahoney, Regan Reilly and Alexis Tsaprailis round out the returning letterwinners.

Five Falcons – Christie Fransen, Audrey Oliver, Ellie Pool, Jayna Searles and Minah Syam – are back after sitting out the 2024 campaign due to injury. Pool, a sixth-year collegian, has scored 39 total points in 56 career matches. Searles has played in 24 career contests, while Fransen moved into the starting lineup for the conference portion of the 2023 season.

The group of newcomers includes five NCAA Division-I transfers along with four freshmen. The quintet of transfers includes juniors Ella Kane, Gabby Lamparty and Isabella Mazzaferro, sophomore Evie Underhill and redshirt freshman Kendall Sears.

Kane, a forward, comes to BGSU after playing in nine matches at Louisville last season. She began her career at Kentucky, and has played in a total of 22 collegiate contests.

Lamparty spent the last two seasons at West Virginia, playing in a total of 29 matches over those two years, while Mazzaferro was a two-year starter at Niagara, and scored 25 points on nine goals and seven assists. Four of her seven goals last season were game winners as she was named to the All-MAAC Third Team for the Golden Eagles.

Underhill started 15 games at St. Bonaventure last season, and led the team in scoring with five points. Sears, a goalkeeper, comes to BGSU from Xavier, where she redshirted the 2024 campaign.

The Falcons' four new freshmen include Mia Gatz (Fishers, Ind.), Claire Landfried (Brunswick, Ohio), Quinn O'Neil (Naperville, Ill.) and Olivia Schneider (Sterling Heights, Mich.).

Fox and the Falcons will head to Nashville for a Monday (Aug. 4) scrimmage at Vanderbilt. Then, the Orange and Brown will continue preparations for the regular-season opener, which is set for Thursday, Aug. 14, against Oakland at Cochrane Stadium.

BGSU's first three matches will be at home, and the Falcons are slated to play 11 home regular-season matches, the program's highest total since 2016. 

BGSU finished the 2024 season with an overall record of 7-7-4, and the Falcons went 4-4-3 in MAC play to earn the sixth seed for the conference tournament. BG advanced to the MAC Tournament for the eighth consecutive season, the longest current streak among conference schools.

For more information on the women's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter/X (@BGSU_Athletics and @BGSU_WSoccer), Instagram (bgsu_wsoccer) and Facebook (bgsuwsoc) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.