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Tormenta ladies ready to take field
Team opens season on road; first game at Tormenta Stadium is May 28
Tormenta 2025
The Tormenta USL-W team celebrates the 2022 national championship. The 2025 edition of the squad takes to the pitch this week.

There is a new man in charge of the Tormenta USL-W League team this summer, but the expectations remain the same for the 2022 championship winning side as the new season is set to kick off this week.

Gone is Jim Robbins, who served as the head coach for the first three years of the program but left in the offseason to take the women's soccer head coaching position at Virginia Military Institute. In his place is Kian Brownlee, who took over in March and credited Robbins and the Tormenta front office with creating an environment where he could step right in.

“Pure excitement,” Brownlee said of getting the head coaching position. “There was a tad bit of anxiety just because I felt we were maybe a little behind in terms of recruiting the players it, but I think because of the foundations laid by Jim and by the club in the previous years and the success they’ve had, it took some of the weight of my shoulders in terms of being able to recruit quality players here.”

The USL-W League is a pre-professional summer season that attracts players hoping to improve their professional prospects after their collegiate career is complete.

Tormenta opens their season on Saturday with three games on the road, including a matchup with the defending champion NC Courage on May 23. South Georgia has their home opener on May 28 at 7:30 when they take on the North Carolina Fusion.

Amy Andrews, who played for Tormenta in 2022, signed professionally after her time in Statesboro and then last summer signed with Newcastle United in England after playing at Dunham. 

Being able to point to successes like that helped Brownlee and his staff assemble a team he’s excited about as they prepare for the season.

“The coaching staff loves the players that we’ve assembled,” he said. “Much appreciation to Jim Robbins, the work he did before I took over and before he took off to VMI. He laid a great foundation this last couple of years and I think that’s created some inertia where players want to be here.”

Abby Gemza was on the 2023 team and is returning for her second go around with Tormenta in 2025. That legacy of success is one of the reasons she wanted to come back to Statesboro.

“They’ve had a lot of pros already in the past couple of years so that’s definitely something that makes you want to come here and play,” Gemza said. 

That atmosphere and culture helped play a role in goalkeeper Madison Vukas making her way to Statesboro. After playing at the University of Pittsburgh and Bowling Green State University where she graduated with degrees in Psychology and Business, she transferred to North Alabama for graduate school in Sport Management and to continue her soccer career.

At North Alabama she is roommates with Alice Bussey, who spent 2024 on Tomenta’s USL-W team. Bussey saw Vukas putting together highlight clips to send to coaches to try to find a place to play and Bussey reached out to Tormenta to ask about the goalkeeper situation. 

“The next thing I know I was sending in film and figuring things out and on my way here,” Vukas said.

Vukas said the reception and the training has been great since she arrived in Statesboro.

“I feel like I’ve known these guys my whole life. They’ve been super welcoming,” she said. “There are a couple of returners, so it’s kind of nice. There’s a bit of a base group that knew each other so we aren’t just staring at each other awkwardly. Everyone’s been super welcoming since day one on and off the field.”

Gemza said the culture and environment created by the Tormenta staff and coaches is second to none. 

“I’ve been on a few USL-W teams and this is definitely the most professional and pre-professional that I’ve ever experienced,” Gemza said. “Everyone always comes out here and competes. I know we’re going to do well and everyone’s going to put their best foot forward.”

Gemza knows the expectations are high for a Tormenta team that has only lost five times over three years of competition.

“Obviously everyone wants a championship,” Gemza said. “They did it before and we can definitely do it again.” 

Perhaps the biggest challenge for any USL-W League team is the compressed time frame of the season. Players started arriving last week, giving them two weeks of training before a sprint of 12 regular season games in seven weeks before, hopefully earning a playoff spot.

“The timing is very difficult,” Brownlee said. “The hardest challenge, I think, is the difference in arrival times of the players coming in.” After a week of practice Tormenta still had up to eight players who were finishing up their college classes before arriving.

“How do we integrate those players in the coming weeks? Are some of those players fit and ready to go for game one (Saturday) or are we going to take a few extra training sessions and build them onto the team?” he said.

Vukas said the key was for everyone to be ready to play the minute they arrive.

“You really have to hit the ground running,” she said. “Come in ready, come in fit and have your touch. If not, you have maybe a day to get it back.”

“There’s a lot of individual talent and once we put it all together, we’re going to fly. We’re going to be great.”