Redilla leaves on top of PAC
NEW WILMINGTON — Julia Redilla called her shot.
Well, in a way.
“There’s always that feeling that you have with your team,” said Redilla, a senior midfielder at Westminster College, before her crew headed into the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) women’s soccer playoffs. “This year, I really think that our grit and our want to win is there … I’ve been wanting it since my freshman year and, each year that I get closer and closer, it’s just the more you want it.
“It would really be a nice send-off.”
A happy swan song, it was.
The Titans won a conference crown for the first time since 2007 — toppling a rival in the process — and punched their ticket to the NCAA Division III tournament, marking head coach Girish Thakar’s sixth appearance on the national stage in his coaching tenure.
“It’s been bittersweet,” Redilla said prior to the beginning of the league postseason. “I know this is my last year playing, so I’m really trying just to do as much as I can for the team, individually.”
The Seneca Valley graduate paced her team with 11 goals, 25 total points, and 66 shots. The showing earned her All-PAC first-team honors for the third time.
“She’s been one of the best goal-scorers in our region,” Thakar said. “She’s a very smart player. She finds herself in the right position at the right time, right place type of thing … That’s what makes her dangerous. She’s always thinking a play ahead of someone else.”
The Titans finished the regular season by winning eight of nine, setting up a PAC tournament semifinal clash against a familiar foe.
“Every time we play Chatham, it’s a big, big game,” Redilla said prior to the matchup.
In the 2021 league final, the Cougars upset the top-seeded Westminster in double overtime. The campaign prior, the Titans’ bid for a conference title ended in penalty kicks in a meeting with Chatham in the semis.
This time around, first-year forward Amanda Lewis, a Slippery Rock High School graduate, netted one of the three goals in the shootout that boosted Westminster past the defending league champions.
Four days later, they downed Franciscan, 2-0, to secure the hardware.
“I’ve been telling everybody that it’s very surreal,” Redilla said. “Just finally being able to take a deep breath and say you did it is just huge. Being able to hold the trophy, it was just something I’ll never forget.”
Although her side bowed out to Amherst in the opening round of the national playoffs, Redilla was thankful for the opportunity to play on such a stage.
“That was a very cool experience that not many get,” she said. “Being able to be a part of this — I call it a historic team — the atmosphere, and how cool being able to play at the highest level, I think is just so interesting.
“It was just nice to fully get to experience it all.”
Redilla plans on attending grad school after she gets her diploma from Westminster. She’s applied to a dozen universities — including Pittsburgh, South Florida, and Penn — and is going to study genetic counseling.
Thakar will miss her leadership and talents on the pitch.
“As a freshman, she was Rookie of the Year in our conference,” Thakar said. “She’s been a first-team All-Conference, All-Region player. (She was) a very successful four-year player for us.
“A very strong leader and has done everything. A model student, both in the classroom and the soccer field.”
