As Carolina Ascent FC Approaches Playoffs, Five Players Contend for "Golden" Honors
Mia Corbin, Jill Aguilera, Audrey Harding, Taylor Porter, and Meagan McClelland are all competing to lead statistical categories at the end of the season.
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While first place Carolina Ascent FC prepares for the playoffs and contend for the inaugural USL Super League Players’ Shield - awarded to the team with the most points at the end of the regular season - five Ascent players are competing for the league’s top statistical honors.
Technical staff members from the eight Super League clubs will vote on some of the league’s 2024-2025 season awards, including Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, and the All-League First & Second Teams.
However, three “golden” awards will be determined by stats alone: Golden Boot (the player with the most goals), Golden Playmaker (the player with the most assists), and the Golden Glove (the goalkeeper with the lowest goals against average). While all players are eligible for the Golden Boot and Golden Playmaker awards, the Golden Glove recipient must be a goalkeeper, and must have played at least 50% of the team’s minutes during the season.
Five Carolina Ascent players are in the hunt for these awards: forwards Mia Corbin and Audrey Harding; midfielder and co-captain Taylor Porter; fullback Jill Aguilera; and goalkeeper Meagan McClelland.
Golden Boot Contender: Mia Corbin
Mia Corbin currently leads the Golden Boot race with 12 goals, with two of those coming from Saturday’s 2-5 win in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday. She’s ahead of Dallas Trinity FC’s Allie Thornton (11) and Fort Lauderdale United FC’s Addie McCain (10). Thornton, however, currently leads the league in goal contributions with 14, while McCain and teammate Ishata Hamid (9 goals) both moved up the Golden Boot rankings with goals against the Ascent.
“[Mia Corbin is] actually much more than a goal scorer,” said Carolina Ascent FC head coach Philip Poole in a recent interview with Soccer Sheet. “She’s the type of player who makes all of the players around her better.”
Corbin was also named Super League Player of the Month for March, and is undoubtedly on the shortlist for the Player of the Year Award.
Carolina Ascent’s Golden Playmakers: Jill Aguilera, Audrey Harding, and Taylor Porter
Three Carolina Ascent players are in striking distance for the Golden Playmaker award, with Jill Aguilera currently tied for most assists in Super League play (6) with Spokane Zephyr FC’s Emina Ekic. After adding one of those assists on Saturday, Aguilera is ready to compete down the stretch.
“Our hard work has been paying off but we still have important games coming up and our intensity and high performance mindset does not change as we work toward winning the final games of the season,” Aguilera said in a press release. “I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish so far, but our work isn’t done yet.”
Audrey Harding (5 assists) is in a five-way tie for third with Dallas Trinity FC’s Chioma Ubogagu and three Lexington SC players: Madison Perez, Madison Parsons, and Shea Moyer. The forward earned one of those assists - along with a brace - in Saturday’s match, making her the second Ascent player after Corbin to reach 10 goal contributions on the season.
Harding gave a lot of credit to the Ascent’s coaching staff for her success.
“We just really try to take what our coaches tell us each game, each week and try to put that on the pitch,” Harding told USL Super League Game Week hosts Anna Witte and Marion Crowder in an interview this week. “Last game I had worked on shots coming into the box, and that’s why I ended up scoring.”
While she didn’t have any goal contributions on Saturday, co-captain Taylor Porter (4 assists) is currently tied for eighth in the Golden Playmaker race. Poole has told Soccer Sheet time and again how important a piece of the puzzle she is for the team.
“[Porter] has played every minute of every game of the season,” said Poole. “Taylor’s been big for us. Very unsung, very under-the-radar, but she puts a shift in and puts the work in [that] sometimes, you don’t even see.”
Meagan McClelland Could Win the Golden Glove from the Bench
It may surprise close followers of the Ascent to see Meagan McClelland on this list and not the club’s current first choice in goal, Samantha Leshnak Murphy.
While McClelland conceded exactly 1.0 goals per match in 17 starts, putting her in a tie for second for the Golden Glove award with Spokane Zephyr FC’s Hope Hisey, Leshnak Murphy has conceded an average of 0.5 goals per match in 8 starts - making her the clear leader in the statistic. No other player or club comes close.
However, Leshnak Murphy is ineligible for the Super League’s Golden Glove award because the winner has to have played 50% or more of their team’s regular season minutes. If Leshnak Murphy continues to start, she will end the season with 11 starts - three short of what she would need to qualify for the award.
With Leshnak Murphy ineligible, Dallas Trinity FC’s Madison White is the only goalkeeper with both fewer than 1.0 goals conceded per match and enough minutes to qualify for the Golden Glove since the previous leader (Cosette Morché of Fort Lauderdale United) gave up 5 goals to Carolina this past weekend.
That means that McClelland could win the Golden Glove from the bench if Dallas Trinity’s opponents - including the Ascent on the final match day of the season - are able to get multiple goals past White, while Hisey and Morché also give up one or more goals per match. That may be a tall order, however, as White currently leads the league in clean sheets with 9 shutouts, and Hisey is not far behind with 8 of her own.
