LAKELAND, FL – After more than a decade at the helm of Florida Southern College’s intercollegiate athletic programs, Director of Athletics Pete Meyer is retiring in February.

Caitlin Quaempts becomes fifth women's soccer student-athlete to earn Academic All-America® honors as announced on Wednesday afternoon. She was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America® third team. In her junior year, Quaempts started in 14 of her 16 games played and recorded two goals as a prominent member of the Moccasins defense. 

LAKELAND, FL - Nearly 100 Florida Southern College student-athletes, coaches, and athletics staff participated in the annual "Out of the Darkness" Community Walk around Lake Hollingsworth on Saturday to benefit the Central Florida chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).

Florida Southern College women’s soccer junior defender Caitlin Quaempts was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-District® team announced on Thursday afternoon. In her junior year, Quaempts started in 14 of her 16 games played and recorded two goals as a prominent member of the Moccasins defense. 

The task of paring a list of 500 games down to 20 was at times daunting, and there were some challenges involving soccer that were not present for softball. Some of the games we’ve presented over the last several weeks were easy to choose, and the only question was where they would fall on the list, but there was never any doubt as to which game would occupy the top spot. Much like the number one game on softball’s top-20 countdown, it was an easy selection, as it represents two things that occurred at Barnett Field in the same game that have each happened only once on their home field. With their 1-0 overtime win over Rollins on November 5, 1971, the Moccasins not only clinched a conference championship in the most dramatic way possible, they also secured a bid to what has so far been their only trip to the NCAA Tournament.

Sometimes the most memorable moments aren’t associated with a single game, or even a single play in a game, but the entire atmosphere surrounding those things. The game is still a big part of it, but there’s a lot more to the moment than what happens on the field. That was the case with No. 2 on our countdown, which occurred on September 15, 2006. It was a night that saw the Moccasins defeat Tampa 2-1, while celebrating the 50-year anniversary of men’s soccer at Florida Southern College.

MELBOURNE, FL - Florida Southern women's soccer senior Gaelyn Crowder has been named to the All-SSC Second Team announced by the conference office on Wednesday. Crowder becomes the 26th different player in program history to earn All-SSC honors. Voting for the All-SSC honors and yearly awards was conducted among the league's women's soccer coaches.

As already noted earlier in the countdown, soccer is a sport dominated by defense, so goals are normally at a premium. If every goal scored were comparable to a touchdown, then scoring 10 goals would be more akin to a 70-point explosion in American football. In today’s version of college football, 70 points are more common than it was a decade ago, but 100 points? That hasn’t been seen at the major college level in 50 years. The Moccasins have done the soccer equivalent of that much more recently, however, and it occurred on September 12, 1987, in a 16-0 win over Florida Bible College.

In 2007, under second-year head coach Ben Strawbridge, the Florida Southern women’s soccer team had a breakthrough season that saw them go 12-7-1, doubling their win total from the previous year while reaching double-digit wins for the first time in team history. In a cruel ending, though, the Moccasins were denied their first trip to the NCAA Tournament when, despite being ranked high enough to receive an at-large bid, they were bumped by an automatic qualifier from the Gulf South Conference that was ranked below them. The following year, however, the Moccasins did get that trip to NCAA postseason play, and they all but secured it on October 21, 2008, with a 1-0 win over Tampa.

In 2010, the Florida Southern men’s soccer team was in the running for a bid to the NCAA Tournament all the way until the final week of the season before a loss at Florida Tech in the final game of the season ended those hopes. Nevertheless, the Moccasins had put together a potent offense that returned largely intact in 2011, and finished eighth in the nation that year by averaging more than 2½ goals per game for the second year in a row. Hopes for the postseason were again high, but the mid-season schedule was unkind as losses to Palm Beach Atlantic, Lynn, and Rollins in the span of nine days (three teams that combined for 36 wins) offset a 4-1 start. The Mocs did rebound, however, with another strong run to end the season, culminating with a 4-1 win over 5th-ranked Rollins College, the highest ranked team the Mocs have ever beaten on their home field.