DALLAS – Liberty was selected as the 2025 preseason favorite in Conference USA by the league’s 12 head coaches. Liberty junior forward
Ivy Garner was tabbed as the CUSA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, while teammate
Lauren Littleton was named Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Liberty enters its third season in CUSA after winning the CUSA Championship in 2023 and finishing runner-up in 2024. The Lady Flames finished with a 15-2-4 record and finished co-regular season champions with a 6-1-2 mark. Ivy Garner, Lauren Littleton,
Sallie Garner,
Elise Graf, Gabby Miranda, Halle Engle and
Avery Paulson make up Liberty’s league-best seven student-athletes on the preseason all-conference team.
Garner started in all 21 games for the Lady Flames last season and ranked fifth in CUSA with nine goals, while leading the league with eight assists on the year. Garner also tallied five game-winning goals. She was an all-tournament team honoree and United Soccer Coaches All-South Region first team member.
Littleton is a returning starting defender for the Lady Flames for a defense that led CUSA and ranked 12
th nationally in goals-against average (.619). The junior earned CUSA Defensive Player of the Week honors twice in 2024 and played over 1650 minutes with 13 90-minute performances.
FIU’s
Valery Restrepo leads the defending CUSA tournament champions in net for the 2025 campaign. The Panthers were picked to finish second in the preseason poll, receiving two first-place votes. Last season, FIU made their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011 and their six conference wins were the most since joining the league.
NM State’s
Jena Johannes, Sam Houston’s
Jasmine Marquez and UTEP’s
Ashlyn Neireiter round out the 2025 Preseason All-Conference Team after standout campaigns last season.
The league welcomes Delaware and Missouri State, bringing the membership to 12 schools in 2025. The top eight teams will advance to the CUSA Championship, hosted by Liberty from Nov. 2-7 in Lynchburg, Va. The 2025 CUSA season kicks off Thursday, Aug. 14.
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year
Ivy Garner, Liberty
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year
Lauren Littleton, Liberty
2025 CUSA Women’s Soccer Preseason Team
GK: Valery Restrepo, FIU
D: Sallie Garner, Liberty
D: Lauren Littleton, Liberty
D: Jena Johannes, NM State
D: Ashlyn Neireiter, UTEP
MF: Elise Graf, Liberty
MF: Gabby Miranda, Liberty
MF: Jasmine Marquez, Sam Houston
F: Halle Engle, Liberty
F: Ivy Garner, Liberty
F: Avery Paulson, Liberty
Predicted Order of Finish
Rank School (first-place votes) Points
- Liberty (9) 119
- FIU (2) 109
- Missouri State (1) 100
- NM State 94
- MTSU 82
- Sam Houston 64
- Delaware 54
- Kennesaw State 47
- WKU 39
- LA Tech 30
- T11. Jax State 27
- T11. UTEP 27