San Antonio Athenians

This is the San Antonio Athenians’ first year with Juventus Academy ownership and you can see the impact this has had on the team, elevating their performance and taking an already strong team to the next level. Finishing the regular season second in the Southwest Conference with a record of 9-1-0 and becoming UWS Southwest Champions, they achieved a club record of 9 wins in a regular season. This season, their exhibition matches saw them play the likes of Houston Dash and Club America from Liga MX Feminil.

Regular season goal leader (7 goals) #21 Amanda Smith and #9 Natalie Hanson (3 goals and 4 assists) are the ones to watch on this Athenians roster. Local fans will recognize names of a number of players from the original Athenians roster, San Antonio universities, and ECNL teams, but they have also added several players from Canada: Amanda Smith, Eden and Paiytn Bretzer, Jamie Erickson, and Ashley Cathro. Erickson is the captain and has played every minute of all 9 regular season games. Jillian Martinez, a Madison High School graduate, won the title of 2019-2020 Gatorade’s Texas Girls Soccer Player of the Year

The Athenians have always had strong local support and this year is no different with the Crocketeers, initially the SAFC USL Championship team supporters group. They have attended home games and are preparing banners to come out and support their team at the National Championship semi-final. Not only are they making strides on the field, but off of it as well, this season they launched their own series of playing cards.

Santa Clarita Blue Heat

“Established in 2010, The Santa Clarita Blue Heat is an elite woman's soccer team in the western conference of the UWS and 2016 National Champion.” The team completed the regular season with an undefeated record of 4-0-2 in the UWS West conference. The women tied Calgary Foothills 1-1 in playoffs, just enough to move to the national tournament final four.

Reading the team roster, you start to appreciate the caliber of competition they have. Scanning the schools represented, you don’t have to look too far to the D1 schools with USC heavily represented, Cal State, University of Michigan, University of Oregon, Notre Dame, Duke, Florida State, and more. There are players with the Armenian and Trinidad and Tobago national teams and the Olympique Lyonnais Academy on their resume. This is a team to have a healthy respect for at kickoff. The team leader in points is Angeles Escobar with 4 goals and 1 assist and Alyssa Thompson was awarded the 2020-2021 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Thompson is only the second sophomore to win the award. She made the UWS team of the week on several occasions and is listed as #9 on the roster. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this future star.

The keepers from both teams, Mia Wildeman vs Brooke Littman , were up for Week 5 UWS Save of the Week.

Both National Semifinal games will be played on Friday, July 23 at Round Rock Multipurpose Complex. The first semifinal begins at 6:00 p.m. CT as Midwest United takes on Connecticut Fusion. The second semifinal will follow at 8:30 p.m. CT between San Antonio Athenians and Santa Clarita Blue Heat. The final will be played on Sunday, July 25 at 11:00 a.m. CT.

To watch all of this weekend’s matches, check out Eleven Sports. Keep an eye out also for our preview of the 2nd semifinal match!

- Danielle Gawronski