Carolina Ascent: Charlotte’s new game in town
September 27, 2024
It’s been nearly two decades since Charlotte had a women’s pro sports team. In its inaugural season, Carolina Ascent FC is wasting no time getting fans into the game.
by Ashley Stroehlein
Win or lose, it’s already a strong start for Carolina Ascent FC — starting with a sellout crowd at its inaugural home opener at American Legion Memorial Stadium near uptown.
Carolina Ascent is a new team in a new division. It’s one of eight teams in the USL Super League, a first division league in professional women’s soccer, which is the highest level in the United States league system, alongside the National Women’s Soccer League.
For a young club, this team has big goals.
“We want to win everything that’s possible to win, right down to the simple things. If they put out a contest, like which team in the league has the best crest, we even want to win that,” defender Cannon Clough says.
Clough, a Charlotte Latin alumna who started her collegiate career at UNC Charlotte before transferring her junior year to play for the UNC Tar Heels, says winning starts with the basics. “Get better in training, get closer with each other as a group, get to know each other even better — everyone’s new to each other, for the most part.”
Their eyes are on the prize. “Then we want to win the championship. We want to be the team to beat going into next year with a target on our back, so I think those are the big goals,” Clough says.
Their aspirations are high off the pitch, too. Players say they feel a calling to be role models, especially to young female fans.
“When we were younger, we just never really had a female professional team or female player to look up to,” say midfielder Ashley Serepca. “To be able to be that influence and aspiration for the younger generations I think is so special, especially when you’ve given your all to the sport. It’s truly like a dream come true.”
To boost that community connection, the front office put a priority on building a roster with players who have roots in the Carolinas. Serepca grew up in Cornelius; even Head Coach and General Manager Philip Poole has deep ties to the Charlotte region. The former assistant coach for the U.S. women’s national team moved here two decades ago from Newcastle, England, to play soccer at Wingate University in Union County.
“It’s absolutely amazing. Every time me and my mom talk about it, we both get emotional because it’s crazy just how soccer has brought us back here,” Serepca says.
“My immediate reaction was just a massive smile,” Clough says about being asked to play in her hometown, calling it a full-circle moment.
Local fans haven’t had a top-level professional women’s sports team to root for since the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting folded in 2007. The club’s debut marks another historic sports moment for Charlotte, too. The Ascent is also heavily supported by a group of local female executive investors, Empower HER Fund. The 11-member group includes former Bank of America executive Andrea Smith, Valerie Mitchener and Molly Shaw.
The hometown crowd seems ready to join the climb. In true storybook fashion, Cornelius native and the team’s first signee Vicky Bruce scored the club’s first goal, giving the Ascent a 1-0 victory over DC Power FC in its debut — all before a record-setting crowd of 10,553 new fans.
With team mottos of “Always Climbing” and “Together We Rise,” Carolina Ascent seems poised to soar. SP
Carolina Ascent FC has several home games through November. Single game tickets start at $22.
Photographs courtesy Carolina Ascent FC
