Women’s soccer Head Coach Michelle Demko will be leaving the program after a 4-11-3 season, GW announced on Wednesday.
Demko helmed the team for six seasons, including a 2019 trip to the Atlantic 10 Championship Finals following a 14-3-4 record, the best under her tenure. The team was unable to find success in the subsequent seasons, however, with their last over .500 record in A-10 play coming in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season when the team finished 6-4-1 overall and 4-3-1 against A-10 opponents.
This season marks the team’s third consecutive bottom-five conference placement, with their 1-8-1 conference record this season tying for last in the A-10. The team was marred by its offensive struggles, with the team only scoring over two goals thrice, in their 7-0 opening game win against Delaware State, a Sept. 10 3-3 tie with American University and the final game of the season, a 3-2 win against St. Bonaventure.
The win against Delaware State opened the season on a positive note, with six players scoring as the Revs dominated the Hornets. The team was even able to stay above .500 until A-10 play, where a 0-2 loss against UMass dropped the team to 3-3-2. The team only won one game throughout their abysmal conference play.
The Revs had an average margin of -.72 goals per game, the third-worst in the A-10. They allowed 38 goals, second-most in the conference behind George Mason’s 53, while only managing to score 25 of their own.
“I am filled with immense joy and gratitude for my time at GW,” Demko said in a GW release.
Her tenure concluded with the team’s win against St. Bonaventure, their lone conference win of the season, breaking the team’s 12 game winless streak.
This included an eight game losing streak as well as a four game streak in which the team did not score a goal from Sept. 14 through Sept. 28. The eight game losing streak and the 12 game winless streak both came to an end against the Bonnies.
In the 80th minute of Sunday’s game against St. Bonaventure, sophomore midfielder Aoi Kataoka knocked in a goal to propel the Revolutionaries ahead of the Bonnies. Kataoka’s play was a rare bright spot for the Revs this season, with her nine assists good for first in the A-10 and her 13 points good for sixth.
Graduate student goalkeeper Rose Hemans led the team with a save percentage of .778 in her seven games started. Notably, two of the team’s four wins came in these seven starts, as the team was 2-3-2 with her in net. The Revs led the A-10 in total saves with 111, although the team’s .745 save percentage was ninth in the conference.
Demko, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50th Anniversary Women’s Soccer Team for her time playing at the University of Maryland, is a veteran of the United States National Team, having played in a game against Germany for the team in 1997.
The program will now begin the search for a new head coach as they look to return to relevance.
