In just her second year as head coach of the women’s soccer team, Gina Brewer has made history by breaking records and ending the program’s dry spells.
The team went from being one place shy of making the Big West playoffs last season to becoming the conference champions this time around. The Matadors took the title for only the second time in program history and the first time in nine years.
Brewer led a team of gritty, resilient and coachable players who lived up to a true underdog story. In the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll, CSUN was picked to finish ninth out of 11 teams.
“We always believed in our team, in our players,” Brewer said. “We knew that they were fantastic student athletes who we thought really had the potential to be very successful, both on and off the field, so it was really fun to be able to kind of, yeah I guess, prove to them that they were wrong.”
Brewer aimed to improve the team overall, as the Matadors had only one conference win when she was first hired. Her goal this season was to finish within the top six in the Big West so they could at least sniff the playoffs for the first time in six years, and it’s safe to say her team exceeded expectations.
“We ended up having an amazing season that, honestly, I think at the beginning if anybody would have said, ‘You know, you’re going to end up with the regular season Big West first place conference champs,’ I don’t think we would have expected it,” she said.
The Matadors received a first-round bye, but their season would end in the semifinals against UC Santa Barbara, which came down to a 3-2 Gauchos win in a penalty-kick shootout after the game remained tied 1-1 through double overtime. UCSB was the only conference team CSUN lost to during the regular season.
Brewer led the Matadors to a conference win percentage of .750, the third-best record in team history and the best since 2016. History making doesn’t stop there: the team also posted a school record of winning seven shutouts in a row and matching a school-best of six conference wins.
Additionally, Brewer was named the Big West Coach of the Year. She made it clear that the award was a huge accomplishment for the entire coaching and support staff, who all played a big role in supporting the athletes.
“The team was bought in, and they listened, and they executed and were very coachable,” Brewer said. “So you know, it’s amazing to be named that, but really, there’s no award like that without all the other people that are doing their jobs at such a high level and being the utmost professional.”
Brewer said due to 10 seniors leaving the team, it’s going to be tough to continue the success next season, with 10 freshmen looking to fill big shoes. She expressed the difficulties of losing so much veteran leadership in the clubhouse, but thinks the younger class is capable of stepping into those roles.
Goalkeeper Riley Liebsack, one of the seniors leaving this year, was coached by Christine Johnson during her first year playing for CSUN. Brewer entered the scene during Liebsack’s junior year after transferring from the University of Las Vegas and said she witnessed Brewer turn the program around.
“I just [saw] a huge difference in the program and the culture and the attitude, the mentality of everybody, I mean she came in and just changed it completely,” Liebsack said.
She further explained the positive changes implemented within the team’s attitude, saying in previous years, the Matadors had a difficult time staying aligned with each other. This year, she said they seemed locked in on the same end goal, which was winning.
“In previous years you know, the team morale, the team unity wasn’t really there but this year I would say we were, all 31 of us on the team were really unified,” Liebsack said.
Despite the numerous records broken and accomplishments this season, Brewer has big plans for the future of her team.
“I think we’re just getting started,” she said. “We’re hoping for a lot more wins and a lot more success moving forward for the women’s soccer program.”
