2026 W&L Women's Soccer Season Preview

No. 7 Generals top ODAC preseason poll with 12 first-place votes

8/26/2026 2:00:00 PM

LEXINGTON, Va. - The Old Dominion Athletic Conference released its 2026 Women's Soccer Preseason Poll on Wednesday and Washington and Lee collected 12 first-place votes and the maximum of 144 points to top the field.

Batten University (formerly Virginia Wesleyan) claimed the remaining first-place tally and received 126 points to take second in the poll, followed closely behind by Bridgewater at 119 points. Lynchburg and Shenandoah rounded out the Top 5 teams with 105 points and 103 points, respectively.

The Generals captured the sixth ODAC championship in program history in 2025 and earned their fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. Overall, the Generals completed the 2025 slate with an 18-2-3 overall record, 10-0-0 in conference play and wrapped up their season in the NCAA Round of 16 for the second straight season.

The team opened the 2025 season strongly at 4-2 overall, but proceeded to not lose another game the rest of the way, as the Generals enter 2026 with an active 17-game unbeaten streak, tied for fifth longest in program history. Their 2025 campaign featured a 12-game winning streak, as well, while the Generals have not lost at home since November 4, 2022, a span of 35 games (29-0-6).

W&L Women's Soccer celebrates NCAA Second Round win

2026 ODAC Women's Soccer Preseason Poll

Washington and Lee University (12) 144 pts.
Batten University (1) 126 pts.
Bridgewater College 119 pts.
University of Lynchburg 105 pts.
Shenandoah University 103 pts.
Roanoke College 91 pts.
Randolph-Macon College 89 pts.
Guilford College 63 pts.
Randolph College 54 pts.
Eastern Mennonite 49 pts.
Averett University 30 pts.
Hollins University 25 pts.
Sweet Briar College 16 pts.

National Polls

The Generals will open the 2026 season where they ended 2025, ranked seventh by the IWSOC/United Soccer Coaches. Washington University (Mo.) begins the season as the top-ranked team for the second year in a row, followed by Emory, UChicago, Tufts and Messiah to complete the Top 5 teams.

The IWSOC/United Soccer Coaches will release a new Top 25 poll every Tuesday during the season in the late afternoon starting in mid-September. Every poll throughout the season can be found here.

We are thrilled with the mindset and commitment of our group this year. We are proud of the way they are coming together both on and off the field. We have an outstanding group of returning players, and we are equally excited about the first-years who have joined our program and the energy they have brought to the team.

Our team understands that we will need to train and compete at a high level every day to prepare for a challenging non-conference schedule. The ODAC continues to have tremendous parity and quality. We are excited for the challenge and look forward to seeing what this group can accomplish together.

Head Coach Tiffany Pins (Fifth Season)

2026 Schedule Overview

The 2026 women’s soccer schedule kicks off on Tuesday, September 1, with the first of four straight non-conference games before the team plays 10 of its final 12 games of the regular season against ODAC counterparts. The Generals will play half of their 16 regular season games at home on Watt Field, with the other eight contests being “true” road games.

NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
The Generals get their season underway on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. against Southern Virginia in Buena Vista, an all-time matchup that favors the Blue and White 8-0 overall, including a 1-0 win in Lexington in 2025. W&L then has its home opener on Friday, September 4, at 5:00 p.m. against William Smith, before taking a trip to Newport News, Va., to battle No. 25 Christopher Newport on September 12. The Generals then have an early-season Senior Day one week later at 1:00 p.m. against York (Pa.).

The final two non-conference games of the Generals' season come after the team's first five ODAC games and before the final five conference games. W&L will welcome No. 12 Mary Washington to campus on October 6 before rounding out non-conference play three days later at Sewanee.

The W&L/William Smith game will be a rematch from the teams' 2024 NCAA Tournament Round of 16 contest which favored the Herons, 2-0, in Scranton, Pa. The Generals and Captains have tied in three consecutive matchups, while W&L has downed the Spartans each of the last two seasons by a combined score of 5-0. The Generals will be playing Mary Washington for the first time since 2022 and Sewanee for the first time since 2019.

ODAC SCHEDULE
The Generals have an even split of five home ODAC games and five on the road. W&L will host Guilford (9/23), Lynchburg (10/3), Batten (10/17), Randolph-Macon (10/21) and Bridgewater (10/28) this season, while playing at Sweet Briar (9/22), Randolph (9/26), Averett (9/30), Shenandoah (10/13) and Roanoke (10/24). During Coach Pins' tenure in Lexington, the Generals are 35-1-4 in conference play and 35-1-9 overall at home.

POSTSEASON PLAY
The ODAC Tournament will begin on Saturday, October 31, with quarterfinal rounds being hosted by the top-four seeds in the conference. Semifinal games will then take place on Wednesday, November 4, with the two highest remaining seeds serving as hosts. The ODAC final will be contested on Saturday, November 7, at the highest remaining seed.

Key Returners

The Generals return four of their eight 2025 All-ODAC players to this season’s team, including three of their first team selections, along with four of their top six scorers and a plethora of talent and experience on the defensive end.

Up top, juniors Elizabeth and Megan Zimmerman ranked second and fourth, respectively, on last year’s team in points. Elizabeth led the team in assists (10) and scored six goals, while Megan had 15 points on five goals and five assists. The twins both made the All-ODAC First Team in 2025 and both started all 23 games last season, while Megan earned a spot on the United Soccer Coaches All-Region Second Team.

Sophomore Mary Parrish Green will add support up and down the pitch the season after being named the ODAC Rookie of the Year a season ago. She was second on the team in assists (9) as a major contributor on set pieces, while also scoring twice for a total of 13 points. An All-ODAC Third Team selection in 2025, Green also aided the defense in allowing just eight goals all season.

Junior Maren Brown and senior Emily Burke cap off the returning players who notched double-digit points last season. Brown had 15 points (6g, 3a) to tie for fourth on the team, while Burke contributed 12 points (5g, 2a).

Junior Kate McEnroe rounds out the returning All-ODAC Generals, as she started all 23 games between the posts last season and totaled a 0.40 goals-against average. McEnroe played 1,810:18 last season, more than 85 percent of the team’s minutes, and recorded nine clean sheets.

The Generals also have an additional three players who started at least 19 games last season, each of whom contributed to the success of the defensive unit. Senior captain Amelia Manke started all 23 games, junior Elizabeth Perri started all but one game and junior Avery Hannah made 21 appearances and 19 starts. W&L also will welcome back senior Shay Bowman to the lineup, who missed a majority of the 2025 season due to injury. As a sophomore, Bowman started all 23 games on defense and added two assists.

Not just a well-rounded returning starting unit, five additional players return who played in at least 15 games last season. Those players include seniors Stephanie Zawtocki, Abigail Watson and Gracie Jorgensen, junior Aubrey Dunbar and sophomore McKenna Reh. These five players combined for 25 points on nine goals and seven assists in 2025.

How to Watch

The Old Dominion Athletic Conference is in year two of a five-year media rights agreement with FloSports ensures that all ODAC and W&L home contests will stream live on FloCollege with a subscription. Games will also be available on demand immediately for all subscription holders and new for the 2026-27 year, for free, on FloCollege, 24 hours after their conclusion on FloCollege.com.

FloSports/FloCollege can be accessed through the FloSports app or on major streaming platforms, including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Google Chromecast which provides access to FloSports’ full library of more than 40,000 events across 25 sports. Subscriptions can be purchased here.

Admission to regular-season home games is free, while ODAC semifinal and championship games and any NCAA postseason contests will require paid admission regardless of host institution.

Fans planning to attend should review W&L’s tailgating and parking operations HERE.

2026 W&L Women's Soccer captains - Abigail Watson, Shay Bowman, Amelia Manke

Senior Abigail Watson is one of three team captains for the Generals this season, bringing 39 games worth of experience into the campaign.

Watson has appeared in double-digit games in all three seasons so far for the Blue and White, while totaling 12 points on four goals and four assists. She has also excelled in her off-field endeavors as a six-time W&L Scholar Athlete, three-time President's List student and three-time ODAC All-Academic Team selection. Watson is a computer science major with minors in mathematics and data science, and has served in multiple positions during summer months as a Genius Sports soccer statistician at the FIFA Club World Cup and FIFA World Cup.

Senior Shay Bowman's return to the pitch in 2026 will be a significant boost to the team's defensive efforts after she missed a majority of her junior season due to injury.

Bowman started each of the team's first three games last season after being in the starting lineup for all 23 games during the 2024 slate. A Third Team All-ODAC honoree in 2024, Bowman has tallied five points on a goal and three assists across 45 games as a defender.

Bowman has also collected six W&L Scholar Athlete citations on top of being named to the 2024 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District team. A journalism and politics double-major, with a minor in philosophy, Bowman has served as a sports anchor on the Rockbridge Report, written for the Ring-tum Phi and participated in summer research through the Summer Research Scholars program.

Senior Amelia Manke rounds out the 2026 team captains for the Generals, and she brings the most experience on the roster back to the pitch this season. Over the last three years, Manke has played in and started 66 of the team's 67 games played.

Manke has provided consistent support to the Generals' superb defensive efforts over the last three seasons, while also getting up for 14 points on five goals and four assists. Manke was especially effective on the offensive end last season with career highs in goals (4) and points (9). Manke is a 2024 All-ODAC Second Team selection, a two-time All-ODAC Tournament Team pick and collected an ODAC Defensive Player of the Week award as a junior.

A biochemistry major, Manke made the President's List last school year and has been named a W&L Scholar Athlete in all six terms so far. She has also collected College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District laurels in each of the last two seasons. Manke is a member of the OIE Liaison Delta Society, pre-Dental Club, pre-Health Club and Tri Beta Biological Society.

Milestone Watch

One key career milestone is circled heading into the 2026 W&L Women's Soccer season: career wins for Head Coach Tiffany Pins.

Pins enters the upcoming season needing just three more victories to eclipse 200 in her head coaching career. Over four seasons at W&L, she has logged a staggering 65-10-13 overall record for a 0.813 winning percentage. Pins boasts a career win percentage of 0.723 (197-63-40), which would make her just the 20th active head coach to reach 200 wins and also hold a winning percentage of 0.700 or better.

As far as player leaderboards go, junior goalkeeper Kate McEnroe enters the season ranked 10th in program history with nine career shutouts. All nine came last season, while another nine clean sheets would push her up to seventh place.

After logging 10 assists last season, tied for fifth-most in a season in program history, junior Elizabeth Zimmerman can crack the program's career Top 10 with another nine helpers.