CHEYENNE, WY – Laramie County Community College athletics celebrated six more athletes committing to four-year institutions on Wednesday afternoon in the Student Lounge, with athletes representing women’s soccer, men’s soccer, and volleyball making their official announcements.
The athletes included Kayt Ward, Tayler Miller, Macey Woolcock, Azael Marrufo, Gael Hernandez, and Nicole Shaver.
Ward is the second athlete from this year’s women’s soccer team that is moving on to an NCAA Division I school, committing to play at Houston Christian University.
During her time at LCCC, she was a standout on the defensive side of the ball, earning All-Region honors as a freshman and a sophomore and helping to guide the team to the national championship in both seasons under two different head coaches. She was a part of a defense that had 13 clean sheets in her two seasons capped off by a 3-0 win over Otero in the 2023 Region IX Championship.
Miller is heading to the NCAA Division II level to play for Southwest Minnesota State University. The midfielder was a member of the All-Region IX First Team as a sophomore and finished the season with four goals and five assists.
Over the course of her career, Miller played in 39 games and started 29 of them, including every game during her sophomore season. The Cheyenne native who played for East High School finished with six goals and seven assists.
Woolcock is the final of the signees in this group and will be moving on to play at the NAIA level for Oakland City University.
One of the two players from England on the 2023 roster, Woolcock was also on the All-Region IX team, picking up a spot on the second team as a forward. She led the team in points on the season with 31, including 11 assists which also topped the team. By the end of the season, she was a deadly threat from the corner, netting two goals from the corner in her final three games at home, including one in the regular season finale and another in the Region IX championship.
On the men’s soccer side, both Marrufo and Hernandez will be moving on to play in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference but on separate teams.
Marrufo finishes his two years at LCCC with 11 goals and four assists, including a team high eight goals as a sophomore. He played in 28 games, starting half of them for the Golden Eagles and finished his career with three game winners. He was one of three from this year’s team to make the All-Region team, earning a second team spot as a forward.
He will be moving on to play for CSU-Pueblo, joining a Thunderwolves team that made a run to the NCAA Division II National Championship game last year before falling to Franklin Pierce.
Hernandez is joining a slew of Golden Eagles who have signed at UCCS in Colorado Springs. He is the seventh player from LCCC to join the Mountain Lions in the last three years and joins a squad that also made a trip to the NCAA National Tournament.
The sophomore transfer came to LCCC for one season from Rose State College and appeared in all 13 games this season for the Golden Eagles and picked up a goal and an assist over the season. The assist came in the Region IX opening round game in the postseason against Western Nebraska.
Shaver becomes the third member of the LCCC volleyball team to sign to play on at the next level, joining teammates Syndey Kettelkamp and Julliana Abbade. She will also be moving on to the RMAC where she will play for New Mexico Highlands University.
Shaver was also a transfer into the program, joining the team in mid-September after attending Quincy University where she redshirted her freshman year. She appeared in 16 matches for the Golden Eagles and picked up 86 assists in 27 sets. She also had five aces and 30 digs in her time with the team.
The Golden Eagles have now seen eleven total athletes commit to four-year schools, with six from the women’s soccer team, three from volleyball, and two from men’s soccer.
There is one more signing day being planned for late April or early May with several more expected to be committing from volleyball and both basketball teams as the semester winds down.
More information on these players and past players who have moved on to the next level can be found at www.golccc.com.