William Smith College Head Soccer Coach Aliceann Wilber and her assistant coaches—Chas Allen, Al Loucks, Chip Carver ’81, Wilson Medeiros, Keith Perrigo and Caio De Medeiros ’23 have been named the United Soccer Coaches Region III Coaching Staff of the Year. This is the 10th time in her illustrious career that Wilber and her assistants have been honored by the United Soccer Coaches with the regional award.
Previously the East Region, William Smith is now in Region III. The new region is comprised of teams from the Empire 8, Liberty League, Skyline, SUNYAC and the University of Rochester.
Wilber and her staff led the Herons to a 19-2-1 overall record, advancing to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals. The 19 wins this season are tied for fifth on the school’s single-season list. Wilber’s team is ranked third in the nation in the latest United Soccer Coaches poll and fourth in the latest D3soccer.com poll. She guided an electric offense that was ranked in the top 10 in the nation all season and entered the tournament fourth in assists per game (3.06) and sixth in points per game (10.61) and scoring offense (3.78). William Smith’s 84 goals, 66 assists and 234 points were all second on William Smith’s single-season lists.
William Smith started the season with a 1-1-1 record through the first three games of the season. The Herons kicked off the 2021 campaign with a 10-0 win over Oneonta. It was the most goals in a game since a 10-0 victory over Skidmore on Oct. 2, 1999. William Smith’s lone loss of the regular season came on Sept. 4 against then No. 1 Messiah. In a rematch of the 2019 national championship game, the Falcons rallied for a 4-2 victory.
The Herons opened Liberty League play with a 2-0 victory over RIT. William Smith rolled to a 9-0-0 mark in conference play securing their seventh undefeated Liberty League regular season in the past eight years. The Herons outscored their conference opponents 34-2, securing their 14th consecutive Liberty League regular-season title. As the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, William Smith won its semifinal 3-0 over RIT. The next day, the Herons claimed their 14th straight tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with a dramatic 3-2 double-overtime victory over Ithaca. William Smith trailed twice in the final 11 minutes of the game but kept their composure and edged the Bombers in the 107th minute.
Making their 31st appearance in the NCAA tournament, the Herons went 3-1-0 advancing to the sectional round for the sixth straight season. William Smith knocked off John Jay 9-0 and No. 17 Hamilton 2-1 in the first two rounds. In the third round, the Herons again showed the flair for the dramatic rallying from a 3-1 halftime deficit to knock off fourth-ranked Misericordia 5-4 in double overtime. William Smith tied the game with the Cougars with a mere 10 seconds remaining in regulation. Top-ranked TCNJ edged the Herons 1-0 in the quarterfinal round.
This season, Wilber tallied her 600th career victory, a 2-0 win over Ithaca on Cozzens Field. She is just the second coach in NCAA women’s soccer history to record 600 career wins. Wilber needed just 114 games to go from win No. 500 to win No. 600. She was 100-10-4 between the milestones. Now in her 41st season at William Smith, Wilber has a career record of 612-140-60. Only North Carolina’s Anson Dorrance has won more games across all divisions.
The only head coach in program history, Wilber has guided the Herons to 37 consecutive winning seasons, 31 NCAA tournament appearances, 18 Liberty League titles and two national championships (1988, 2013).
Wilber’s staff previously earned the United Soccer Coaches Regional Staff of the Year award in 1993, 1995, 1999, 2008, 2011 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019. She was named the national coach of the year in 1987, 1988, 1991, 2008 and 2013.
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