Carnegie Mellon Women’s Soccer Celebrates 25 Years

Following another strong season in 2015-16 and the completion of 25 years of varsity competition for the Carnegie Mellon University women’s soccer program, the Tartans have another reason to celebrate – the establishment of an endowed fund to support the program. Thanks to a multi-year pledge and lead gift from Christina Isaly Liceaga (BHA 1995), the 25th Anniversary Endowed Fund for Women’s Soccer will provide transformative support for the program.

“I am grateful for Christina’s vision, and the passion she has for our university and the women’s soccer program,” said Director of Athletics Josh Centor. “Our ambition is to challenge for conference and national championships every year in the sport of women’s soccer, and this endowed fund will provide important opportunity to help us achieve those goals.”

Isaly Liceaga is passionate about fellow alumna, current and past parents, and friends of the program participating in this initiative. Led by Isaly Liceaga’s multi-year pledge, the 25th Anniversary Endowed Fund for Women’s Soccer has been established with the goal of reaching the required principal balance by the end of next fiscal year so that the fund can begin distributing resources.

“I’ve been a believer in giving back to my academic institutions because I witnessed my father do the same,” said Isaly Liceaga. “He would say, ‘Even if you’re going to give a dollar, give them a dollar. It matters that everyone participates and that everyone is fighting for the same purpose.’”

When Isaly Liceaga enrolled at Carnegie Mellon, Division III women’s soccer had only existed for five years and women’s sports had only been sponsored by the NCAA since 1981. As a child, Isaly Liceaga was engrossed in the world of athletics, playing soccer and baseball and tumbling in gymnastics.  Even when the notion of college athletics seemed out of reach, she sought out the challenge and moved from sport to sport, season by season, like many of her peers.

Isaly Liceaga was attracted by the rigors of sport and, like the academic institutions she attended from grade school through high school in New York City, yearned for much of the same in her college experience.

“Although being a college athlete wasn’t on anybody’s radar when I was growing up, I thought it would be really fun to keep playing,” said Isaly Liceaga. “I wanted to be challenged academically, I wanted to be in a metropolis - but not New York, and I wanted a certain size school. Carnegie Mellon offered all of that and the opportunity to continue my soccer career.”

Carnegie Mellon also offered the Manhattan native a chance to better connect with family who lived in the tri-state area of Ohio, Western PA and West Virginia. “Pittsburgh was a road trip away to see family, so we did it once a year to see my grandmother in Youngstown, Ohio,” continued Isaly Liceaga.

The women’s soccer team first competed as a varsity team in 1991, finished third in the University Athletic Association (UAA) in Isaly Liceaga’s senior year and now, 25 years after the program’s first varsity installment, has won back-to-back UAA championships and is considered among the best programs in the nation.

“They [coaching staff and team] are doing such a great job, the girls are awesome, and the team is doing so well,” Isaly Liceaga continued. “It would just be so great to say I played in a program that has won the national championship. I think that’s within reach. If it takes some extra money to do that, I don’t think that is a hard ask. If we need a little more to make it even a little bit better then we should try to do that. With what they’ve been given, they’ve done quite a bit.”

Isaly Liceaga has every right to believe a national championship is within reach for her alma mater. The Tartans have enjoyed four consecutive seasons of NCAA postseason play—the only four in program history. Along the way, the team has reached the quarterfinals once and played in back-to-back rounds of 16 while closing the 2015 campaign ranked seventh in the nation.

A core of players, including All-American junior midfielder Tori Iatarola and two other All-Great Lakes Region honorees return for 2016. The Tartans are ranked sixth nationally in the 2016 NSCAA Preseason Rankings, giving Isaly Liceaga’s comments further credibility.

“We have tremendous depth this year with the return of nine starters and many others that logged significant minutes for us the last few years,” head coach Yon Struble said. “The returners, along with a large first-year class, are very motivated to reach their goals, especially after falling short on our home turf the last few postseasons.

“I’d like to thank Christina for her advocacy and support of our program,” added Struble. “Her contributions allow us to better the student experience on and off the field. The women are working extremely hard and with supporters like Christina, we feel we can do anything.”

To make a gift to support the 25th Anniversary Endowed Fund for Women’s Soccer, please click this link.

Additionally, in conjunction with celebrating 25 years as a varsity program, we encourage all of our alumnae to return to campus this year for homecoming weekend, October 28-30. The women’s soccer team has games against WashU and Chicago that weekend, and we will also have commemorative gifts and a reception for all alumni in attendance. For more information or to RSVP for the weekend please contact Coach Shannon DeNinno at slagnew@andrew.cmu.edu.