Western Kentucky University Women's Soccer

For media inquiries, please contact Will Gerber at will.gerber637@topper.wku.edu. Jason Neidell, the only head coach in WKU women's soccer history, enters hi...

Antonio La Gamba was announced as an assistant coach at WKU in April of 2025. La Gamba came to The Hill from the University of the Cumberlands where he served as an assistant coach for the 2024 season. He helped lead the Patriots to an 18-1 overall record, including a perfect 6-0 record in conference play. La Gamba helped UC win the Mid-South Conference Regular Season Championship and the MSC Tournament Championship, earning the #1 seed in the NAIA National Tournament. In addition to the team success, UC had the 2024 NAIA player of the year, Jayden Boelter who scored 30 goals and had a program record 5 NAIA All-Americans. La Gamba helped UC notch a 23-match win streak which is one of the greatest win streaks in women’s collegiate soccer history. The Patriots scored 71 goals and conceded 8 in 19 games, including 13 shut outs. The Patriots' lone loss came in the NAIA National Tournament in the Round of 16. UC ended the season ranked eighth in the NAIA poll. In the summer of 2025 La Gamba was the Head Coach of Flower City 1872, a USL W pre-professional team and the top Assistant Coach for the Flower City Union, a NPSL Semi-Professional team. For Flower City 1872 in his first game at the helm, La Gamba made history by beating FC Buffalo 2-1 who were previously undefeated for 4 years across all competitions. Prior to Flower City 1872 beating FC Buffalo in May, FC 1872 had lost 20-1 on aggregate in the first 4 contests between the clubs. 2025 marked a historic first season for FC 1

Emma Tompkins was named an assistant coach at WKU in April of 2025. Tompkins stayed on The Hill, after completing her collegiate career at WKU as a goalkeeper. Tompkins came to WKU after playing four seasons at Purdue. She was named a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar for three seasons and Academic All-Big Ten in 2021. At WKU, she earned a clean sheet against Chicago State in 2023 in a 2-0 shutout win and made five saves against Ohio in 2024. Tompkins had a stellar high school career at Elizabethtown High School, leading her team to district titles all four years. In 2019, she was named Select Prep Girl's Soccer Player of the Year. Her goals against average for her high school career was below 1.00, including a career best 0.400 GAA in her sophomore season. On the coaching side, Tompkins has served as an assistant coach at SKY Soccer while also serving as support staff for camps with the Bowling Green organization. She has assisted the last six years with training duties for Bright Lights Goalkeeping, a regional goalkeeping academy based in Louisville. She has also worked with individual players, privately coaching and offering developmental programming since 2019.