Looking Back at the 2025 Women's Soccer Season
CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Athletics continues their look back at the 2025-26 season with a look at the 2025 Women’s Soccer season.
CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Athletics continues their look back at the 2025-26 season with a look at the 2025 Women's Soccer season.
The 2025 season saw the Beavers bounce back and saw a more competitive and successful squad over the year before. In addition to wins, 2025 featured more goals, shots, shots on goals, corner kicks, goals against and shutouts. Their four shutouts were the most in a season since the 2015 season.
As a team, Blackburn saw one earn St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors plus a team award as they earned the Sportsmanship Team Award.
Grace Vidmar was named to Third Team All-SLIAC after a standout freshman campaign. She led the team with five goals, taking 74 shots with 43 of them being on goal. Vidmar finished the season with a shot on goal percentage of .581. She finished the year third in shots and second in shots on goal.
Vidmar earned early season recognition when she was named SLIAC Offensive Player of the Year in September after helping score goals in wins over Mount Mary University and Spurgeon College. Her goal against Lyon College ended a 12-match SLIAC scoreless streak and helped the team to a 1-1 tie.
Freshman Amelia Brown provided two goals and an assist to aid the offensive attack. Freshman Cristina Zelaya and Giselle Moya also scored goals during the season. Zelaya led the team with two assists while Moya and freshmen Paige Schmelzer and Stephanie Padron also had assists.
In goal, the team featured two goalkeepers who saw success. Freshman Emma Zaidle started in 13 matches and posted 73 saves while freshman Allison Nebelsick appeared in 13 matches and tallied 76 saves. The duo combined for a 3.77 goals against average which was over a three-goal improvement on the 2024 season.
The group picked up their first win in a 2-0 victory over Mount Mary University and followed it with a 4-0 win over Spurgeon College. Blackburn made it a three-game winning streak with a 1-0 victory over Maranatha Baptist University.
During conference play, the Beavers picked up two ties. They tied Lyon 1-1 and then posted a 0-0 tie with Mississippi University for Women.
As a team, Blackburn finished the year with 163 shots with 90 of them on goal. They also had 42 corner kicks and had four shutouts this season.