STARKVILLE — Last fall, James Armstrong led Mississippi women’s soccer to heights it had never achieved.
Armstrong, who is in his fourth season, led the Bulldogs (12-6-4) to its first ever Southeastern Conference Tournament win over Texas A&M and NCAA Tournament win over New Mexico State in 2022. Though brief, that postseason run, Armstrong said at Tuesday’s first Hail State Happy Hours session at Starkville’s Georgia Blue restaurant, left his team wanting more.
“We still felt we had left something on the table,” Armstrong said. “The beauty of it was we did something that’s never been done before (here). It allowed the girls a lot of excitement as this is now the standard.”
Sensing a window where the Bulldogs could explode on to the women’s college soccer scene this fall, Armstrong loaded up on goal-scoring talent.
Along with returning its top-three scorers from last season (Maggie Wadsworth, Haley McWirther and Alivia Buxton), MSU signed a five-player recruiting class, all who arrived to campus in January, as well as an eight-player transfer group filled with premium talent.
Amongst the new additions are Ilana Izquierdo, a Southern Mississippi transfer, who was an All-Sun Belt Freshman in 2021 and second-team player last season, Aitana Martinez-Montoya, from Fairleigh Dickinson, who was named Northeast Conference Offensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons, Megan Day, who was last year’s Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year with Cal State Fullerton and Ruthny Mathurin, who will be competing with Haiti’s national team at this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Combined, these players scored 28 goals in NCAA competitions last season.
“The players we have coming in have really high accolades, so a lot of players our fans are going to be really excited about and we can’t wait to see how they integrate with returning players,” Armstrong said “Particularly from an offensive standpoint, we are going to have a lot of different ways to attack.”
Armstrong said the key to the team’s success is how quickly those new faces can integrate with the returning players.
Coming off of a season where MSU sold out two games at the Mississippi State Soccer Field, and almost a third when the Bulldogs hosted their NCAA Tournament win over the Aggies, Armstrong hopes his team’s encore adds to the excitement and upward trajectory to the program.
“I think there is a buzz around the program right now,” Armstrong said. “We are super excited about the fanbase, how much it’s growing and hopefully putting together a program they can be proud of and excited about this fall.”
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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