On Oct. 25, the John Leaney Field played host to a moment of history: the first ever match of the Clementines, Macalester’s women’s club soccer team. For Clementine captain Felicia Winfrey ’25, forming the team and getting to kickoff was already a hard-won victory.
“It was so, so cool,” Winfrey reflected. “This is something that I’ve wanted since my first year at Mac — a women’s club team. And no one was doing it, so I was like, ‘okay, well, I’ll just do it!’”
At the match’s outset, the opponent — St. Olaf College’s women’s club team — held the measure of play, but the Clementines were able to deal with the pressure, as they settled in and the game progressed.
“It’s really hard to start something,” Brenna Somdahl-Sands ’26 — another team captain — remarked, referring to the process of building up the team. “You have nothing [to show for it at the beginning], so you’re going through the semester and you’re doing all your classes and then you’re putting in an extra, like, six, seven hours a week … And then finally [on Friday] we got to play a game, and we had, like, so many people come out and help us. It was just amazing to see all that work come out into 80 minutes of a game.”
The team initially had difficulty fielding players; the Clementines first practiced in April, but they struggled for numbers.
Winfrey described the process of getting the club up and running in Spring 2024, out of a sense that the existing opportunities for women to play soccer were insufficient: “Last semester, I talked to Steve Murray, who is the Associate Athletic Director … and I said, I think we need this as a school — intramurals isn’t a space that’s working and neither is the [men’s] club team right now. And we got a couple field times last semester. But for everyone, April is one of the busiest times of year, so it was really hard to get started — we had a couple practices, [with] around 10 people at each of them.”
Around that time, Somdahl Sands joined the club’s leadership. She noted the logistical help that the Clementines received from the women’s varsity and men’s club teams to have the requisite equipment to practice: “At the beginning of [Spring 2024], we didn’t have any money. So last semester, the women’s [varsity] soccer team provided us some balls, then this semester, we’ve been working with the men’s club soccer team a lot to have the proper equipment to do a practice.”
Despite the difficulty of pulling a team together in the spring, the Clementines persevered and continued practicing into Fall 2024, where they saw a huge influx of interest and membership and were able to build both a team and a community in earnest.
“This semester, we really just started off so strong,” Winfrey said. “We had like 45 people at our first practice and have had super consistent numbers since then … And most of our team is first-years and sophomores, which also, I think, speaks to how needed this was as a school and how much potential there is in the next couple years. We started having practices this semester [and we] knew we wanted to get a game on the schedule. [We] talked to Carleton, talked to St. Olaf and it worked for St. Olaf to come up on Friday, [Oct. 25].”
Midway through the first half of that game, the Clementines conceded on a play where a second ball on the field meant keeper Gwen Reoch ’25 wasn’t properly set to make a save and the ball bounced off both posts and trickled in, but they continued to settle into the match. Later in the first half, a breakout down the right side led to a cross into the box and a St. Olaf handball, lending the Clementines a penalty kick to tie the match.
The Clementines had a penalty kick opportunity to tie the match; Winfrey herself was the one to step up to take the spot kick: “I was like, ‘okay, I got it,’” she said. “[I thought] ‘… just don’t [mess] it up. I’ll just kick it, right?’ I chose my spot and went for it — and their goalie wasn’t experienced and so I didn’t think that she would try to save it … I felt confident in myself and I think it’s a lot of pressure to take a PK and I didn’t want to put that burden on someone that didn’t feel confident. I was like, ‘I can do this, I got it,’ and it worked. Thank God.”
With cool nerves and an accurate shot, Winfrey scored the Clementines’ first ever goal, leveling the score late into the first half.
The crowd that attended to watch the Clementines’ first game also contributed to a celebratory atmosphere in the stadium. Ari Zeren ’27, in the stands, likened the feeling to that of the soccer teams that play in small communities in the UK, in stadiums populated by their fellow community members.
That community sense also came through in the continued cooperation between the men’s and women’s club teams; three men’s club players formed the refereeing crew for the match and another two acted as coaches on the touchlines, while the Clementines’ own captains played in the field.
Coming out of halftime, the Macalester side proved much more ready to meet the challenge of their opponents. Whereas St. Olaf had held the run of play in the first half, especially early on, the two sides were much more even in the second, showcasing the Clementines’ minute-by-minute improvement throughout the match, especially among players without much prior experience, including some who had never played an 11-a-side match.
“As a team, we’re very focused on our community and building friendships and playing together,” Winfrey said. “St. Olaf was bringing a lot of very competitive energy, which was really awesome and fun but I think it caught us a little bit off guard. And so we were adjusting mid-game … I think as a team, we did a good job balancing previous experience, to have everyone play but to also compete. And I think we really grew into the game, playing with each other and kind of [building] up that chemistry. I’m so proud of everyone for their effort; it was so incredible and fun and so cool to see and to play.”
“I think at the beginning, a lot of people were figuring out positions,” Somdahl-Sands said. “We were figuring out how that was gonna work, because we’ve just never done it before, but we have Gwen [Reoch] in the back, who’s a stud, so she really held it down for us for a little bit. I think we settled in in the second half and started creating some more opportunities and had some really great passes and started to link up. We didn’t capitalize, but it was definitely really good to see the development, even throughout the game, as someone who’s kind of been coaching them this entire semester. From the start to the end, there was so much change in a lot of the players and it was really great to see.”
The Clementines continued to carve out an excellent second half through solid team play and good defense, in particular from Catherine Hanson ’27 and from on-field captains Ruby Rogers ’25 and Evelyn Kent ’25, although each player benefitted from the team’s in-game development.
Those late-game improvements hopefully foreshadow the successful growth of the team, although they still face challenges. Winfrey noted that the team’s status as a probationary club sport makes it difficult for them to carve out field times and leaves them with few resources. She also expressed the importance of finding a dedicated coach for the team, rather than relying on player-captains or men’s club team stand-ins.
Somdahl-Sands spoke about the difficulty of finding opponents: “What we’re really trying to do right now is find teams to play in our area, which is harder than it looks, because, especially at a DIII level, sometimes the club soccer isn’t with club sports, sometimes it’s a club through the school,” Somdahl-Sands said. “So there’s a lot of weird things and it’s really hard to find [opponents]; I mean, we found St. Olaf by looking up their Instagram.”
Ultimately, as the Clementines look to solidify their footing and find consistent matches, emphasis will still lie on fostering community through play: “Our team is such a great place for people to play and for people to compete but also have it be a club sport that is focused on community building and and building relationships with each other,” Winfrey said. “[We] really emphasize that we’re here to be students but also here to play in this incredible community.”
Despite strong play throughout the rest of the second half, neither team could score and the game ended 1-1. The audience who had come to watch the match gathered out on the running track to greet and congratulate their friends after the milestone match.
“It was just so, so awesome to have that space and, leaving the game, I had tears rolling down my face because I was just so happy,” Winfrey said. “And it was so fun to play soccer again and to play it on an 11-a-side field … It was just an incredible feeling and I’m so proud of everyone on the team who has showed up.”
