2023 Northwestern women’s soccer player previews: Caterina Regazzoni

Navigating one’s freshman year of college tends to be pretty difficult. Unless, of course, your name is Caterina Reggazoni. Reggazoni tore through her freshman season, easily winning Big Ten Freshman of the Year and earning a spot on the All-Big Ten Third Team. And oh yeah, she also helped Northwestern tie or break eight program records last season. Now it’s time for an encore.

Who she is

Sophomore; midfielder; 5-foot-10; from Zurich, Switzerland; 2022 Third Team All-Big Ten; 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year; U20 Fifa Youth Cup Champion; Swiss Cup Champion

Career Stats

87.7 minutes per game (22 games); 3 goals; 3 assists; 9 points; 51.3% shots on goal.

2022 Review

As stated earlier, it is not easy to get your feet under you as a college freshman. Reggazoni, however, made it look easy, taking defenders to school over a month before classes started for the fall quarter. It took her just 64 minutes of collegiate play to score her first career goal against Kansas State, which helped spark Northwestern to a 2-1 victory.

Reggazoni also played every single minute in 20 of the team’s 22 games last season, including each of the last 19. After Kansas State, she was held scoreless for over a month until the Nebraska contest on September 22. In that game, arguably the best of her career, she scored a goal in the eighth minute and added a pair of assists.

The rest of the season was a little quieter for Reggazoni. She added another goal against Michigan and an assist in the NCAA tournament opener against SIUE, but those were the only other times she showed up on the scoreboard. However, she still finished fifth on the team in points and tied for fifth in assists, proving her value to the offense. She was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year for her performance on the pitch.

Expectations

Needless to say, it’s unlikely that either Reggazoni or Northwestern will sneak up on anyone this year. On August 9, Northwestern was ranked 18th in the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Poll, the highest preseason rank in school history. On Tuesday, the Big Ten released its own soccer preseason poll, which had Northwestern second in the conference.

Reggazoni is a key factor behind the hype and is also receiving a fair bit of praise herself. She was named a player to watch by the conference, one of three Wildcats to receive the honor. Her inaugural season saw her become one of the best players on the team — without having to put the word “freshman” as a qualifier. This year, she figures to be just as important, if not more so, to the team’s hopes.

The rising sophomore finished third on the team in shots last year, behind only fellow returnees Josie Aucilino and Aurea del Carmen. A big reason for that was her consistency on the field, with the Iowa game on October 20 standing as the lone game in which she didn’t participate. Regazzoni was a near-constant presence for the team last year, and no matter what happens to her scoring or assist totals, she’ll most likely be on the field almost every minute this year. All ‘Cats fans have to do is hope that the sequel to her first year is even better than the original.