Lexington Sporting Club begins Super League season with undefeated start
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Lexington Sporting Club is the last unbeaten team in the 2025-26 Gainbridge Super League.
- LSC has a 3-0-5 (W-L-D) record through eight matches, which is good for 14 points.
- Masaki ‘Mac’ Hemmi is the first-year head coach of Lexington Sporting Club.
So far, so good for Lexington Sporting Club’s professional women’s soccer team as it seeks an on-field turnaround.
In its 2024-25 debut season in the Gainbridge Super League — the newest pro women’s soccer league in the United States that was formerly known as the USL Super League — Lexington was woefully off the pace. LSC finished in last place, winning only four of 28 matches and finishing with the most goals allowed (62) and the worst goal differential (-33) among the league’s eight teams.
Things couldn’t be more different this season.
Powered by a new head coach and a revamped roster, Lexington is the last unbeaten team in the 2025-26 Super League season. LSC has won three of its eight matches so far this campaign, drawing the other five.
Entering this week’s matches, Lexington leads the now nine-team league with 14 points and a Super League-best goal differential (+11). LSC boasts the Super League’s best attack (17 goals scored) and stingiest defense (six goals allowed).
“The fewest goals against is definitely a great number to have,” first-year Lexington coach Masaki “Mac” Hemmi said. “If you study any league in the world, most of the time the (regular season) winners are the ones that are giving up the least amount of goals. So I knew that being organized defensively and getting everybody to buy in to be able to execute, that was very important early on... I think we’re really happy that with as much attacking talent as we have on the roster, we’re committed to defend as a team.”
While many around the league expected Lexington to be much improved from its disastrous debut season — during which LSC used four different head coaches — few expected this. It’s a credit to Hemmi, who is originally from Japan and previously was an interim head coach in the National Women’s Soccer League, that Lexington’s new roster has jelled so effectively and quickly.
Hemmi’s coaching philosophy has been crystallized thanks to experience.
In a past life, Hemmi was a petroleum engineer. After taking a part-time job coaching youth soccer in Colorado, Hemmi found a fulfillment that led him down his current pathway. Despite these distinct careers, Hemmi noted some carryover between the two professions.
“I think just proactive organization,” Hemmi said. “... Just to be able to explain why we’re working on certain things or trying to simplify what we need to get done on the day or seeing ahead of the game.”
Hemmi has been an interim head coach in the USL Championship, the division that Lexington’s professional men’s team plays in, as well as an assistant coach in the top league of Japanese women’s soccer and for an NCAA Division I men’s soccer program.
“We have a really great (coaching) staff, and I think they come with really clear plans for us, like a style of play, things they want us to focus on,” said defender Allison Pantuso, who has played all 720 minutes of Lexington’s season. “But Mac also allows for a lot of individual freedom. So he’s never a coach to come at you for trying something different or something you see on the field. So I think it’s a mix of really great structure from them, but also a lot of trust from them toward us as well.”
Hemmi has benefitted from Lexington’s offseason roster retool. Two of the most notable acquisitions came in attacking positions. Lexington paid the highest transfer fee in Super League history to get midfielder Addie McCain from Fort Lauderdale United and also signed midfielder Emina Ekic, who was last season’s Super League Player of the Year with Spokane Zephyr.
Ekic was a previously a soccer sensation in the commonwealth at Louisville (29 goals and 19 assists in a four-year college career) and at DuPont Manual High School, where she was the 2015-16 Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year. Ekic began her pro career by playing for Racing Louisville of the NWSL for three seasons.
Combined, McCain and Ekic tallied 20 goals last season for their respective clubs.
“I think that we’ve established an identity,” McCain said. “We’re all (able to) rally around that and resort back to what we want to do in games. Even if it gets chaotic at times, we resort back to our ideas and the identity that we have. Everyone is clear about that. Everyone knows what we want to do each game.”
New arrivals help Lexington Sporting Club reach top of Super League table
Lexington has scored multiple goals in four of its eight games this season. McCain and forward Catherine Barry lead the way with five goals each, while midfielders Ekic and Tati Fung are tied for the team lead with three assists each. Along with McCain and Barry, forward Sarah Griffith and midfielder Shea Moyer have two goals each.
“It’s continuing to figure out how each other likes to play,” McCain said. “Where they want the ball, what type of runs they’re going to make and the combinations that you can have. That’s what we focus on, and we have done well, but I think we also have a higher standard for ourselves. We want more wins, and we believe that we’ve deserved more wins at times.”
LSC’s defense, anchored in part by Pantuso and goalkeeper Kat Asman, have combined to keep opponents off the scoreboard in four matches. By staying compact centrally, Lexington has allowed just three goals in its past seven games.
“I think when we don’t have (the ball) we are able to be organized. We take pride in being the most organized team in the league,” Hemmi said. “The team believes in it, and that has really paid off.”
Lexington looks to continue unbeaten start to Super League season
Lexington’s strong start to the season has also featured a number of statement results.
In its season-opening match at Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 23, LSC fought back from 2-0 down to claim a 3-3 draw. A 6-1 home victory over Dallas Trinity on Sept. 26 set a new team record for the most goals scored in one match. Most recently, Lexington brushed aside Fort Lauderdale by a 5-1 score at home Oct. 16 in a match between the Super League’s last two unbeaten squads.
It’s also not a coincidence that all three of Lexington’s wins this season have come at the Lexington SC Stadium, the club’s soccer-specific home near Interstate 75 that opened in September 2024. Through five home matches this season, Lexington is averaging 1,958 fans per contest with three games drawing more than 2,000 at the gate.
The next chance for a stellar home crowd — and for Lexington to push its unbeaten start to nine games — is Friday night, when LSC hosts Sporting Club Jacksonville for a Halloween matchup at 6 p.m.
