July 28, 2019, is still the best day of Phoebe Canoles’ life.
That’s the day she and a group of Baltimore-area girls playing for Premier Navy 2001 won the under-18 title at the United States Youth Soccer National Championships. Canoles, who had recently graduated from Perry Hall, and her friends piled onto each other, crying and hugging. They celebrated becoming just the second girls’ soccer team from Maryland to win a national championship.
In the wake of the historic victory, Canoles and her friends agreed to get commemorative tattoos. Canoles had planned to get it on her foot.
More than four years later, Canoles, a redshirt senior for Towson women’s soccer, never ended up getting the tattoo. A few weeks after the championship, she started her career with the Tigers.
Now, plans for another tattoo are in the works.
This time, it’s a pact the three-time All-CAA forward made with Towson head coach Katherine Vettori. The sixth-year coach and her star forward promised one another that if Towson won a Coastal Athletic Association championship, they would get matching tattoos on the bottom of their big toes.
The team came close last season, finishing with the program’s best record in decades (12-3-5) but fell short in the CAA tournament semifinals to Hofstra.
“I never planned on getting a tattoo in my life, and you know, weirdly, I was disappointed when we lost in the semis because I want that tattoo,” Vettori said. “My word is the best thing I’ve got and I’m sticking to it.”
A year later, the Tigers appear to be well on their way to making good on that promise again. Towson defeated William & Mary, 1-0, on Oct. 29 to advance to the CAA championship game for the first time in program history.
The hot start has been driven by a potent offensive trio that includes Canoles and fellow seniors Jasmine Hamid and Nia Christopher. Add in graduate midfielder Julie Lynch and graduate forward Demi Pierre and the Tigers are the highest-scoring team in the CAA.
Canoles and Christopher have known each other since they were teammates on the national title-winning Premier Navy team. Hamid, a George Mason transfer, joined the team in 2021. That season, Christopher broke out for 13 goals — Canoles and Hamid had three each — and the Tigers completed their first winning season of Vettori’s tenure (8-7-3).
In 2022, the attacking partnership continued with Christopher again leading the way with 13 goals. Canoles chipped in nine goals and Hamid, six. This year, the three forwards were the top three goal-scorers in the CAA heading into play on Oct. 15. The three had combined for 28 goals, or more than 80 percent of Towson’s offense. If that trend holds, it will be the third straight season Canoles, Hamid and Christopher score at least 70 percent of the team’s goals.
“I’ve been playing with Nia for probably eight years now. We’ve been building for years our style of play,” Canoles said. “And with Jas, I feel like that just came so easily. The first season that she got on the field I just knew that I would connect with her. We have the same style of play. We are very attack-minded.”
Canoles had a career year as a junior. She led the team with seven assists, and five of her nine goals were game-winners. The 25 points she racked up on her way to second-team All-CAA honors are the sixth-most in program history. Add those statistics to her current season (seven goals, eight assists) and the 22-year-old is already in the program’s top 10 all-time in points and has a chance to join Christopher in the top five.
Canoles’ rise to become one of the best players in the CAA began as a freshman in 2019 when she started the first five games of the year before suffering a torn ACL against UMBC. The Tigers lost Pierre to an ACL tear in the same game.
“It was devastating,” Vettori. “We looked around like, ‘How are we going to score?'”
After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the 2020 season, the time off became an unexpected benefit for Canoles, who had a full 14 months to recover from her injury.
When she returned in the abbreviated spring 2021 season, Vettori asked her to play center back. A player who only wants what’s best for the team, Canoles accepted the role without hesitation.
“My mindset was, I just want to win. I’ll go anywhere as long as we can win,” said Canoles, who played every minute of the eight-game season and earned third-team All-CAA and All-Rookie Team honors.
That fall, Canoles was named team captain and got regular minutes in the midfield for the first time in two years. She initially had doubts about how well her knee would hold up. But those fears were wiped away during the team’s season opener against St. Joseph’s when she dribbled past three defenders and scored the first goal of her college career.
“I was just really doubting myself like, ‘Would I ever be the player that I was before?'” Canoles said. “And once I got my first goal, all my confidence came back up and I just realized I can still do this.”
Vettori said the Tigers’ torrid start this season can be attributed to a decision made more than nine months ago to set a higher standard. The team trained relentlessly during the spring. The captains began strength and conditioning drills two weeks early this fall. The result is a fitter, more resilient team that is finishing games with more left in the tank than their opponents.
Last season, the Tigers let a few opportunities slip through their claws. Four games ended in 0-0 draws and a fifth ended deadlocked at a goal apiece. Conversely, this season, the team has been able to find goals when it needs to put the game away. The Tigers have been held to one or no goals just four times all year.
Towson’s most dominant win came in an 8-1 thrashing of UMBC on Aug. 31. The blowout showed the maximum potential for a team that no longer settles for ties, Canoles said.
“The biggest challenge with these personalities is getting everyone to play together,” Vettori said. “When we play together and we don’t play as individuals, there are some very special moments.”
As the regular season comes to a close and the team gears up for the CAA tournament (Oct. 26 to Nov. 4), Canoles remains confident in the heights her team can reach.
“We can celebrate when we are great and be happy about it, but it’s never enough until we reach the end,” she said. “We have one final goal. What we do in between is great and we celebrate it, but on everyone’s mind, we’re all thinking that we’re here to win a championship this year.”
And while she never got “7/28/19” tattooed on her foot, there’s no doubt in Canoles and Vettori’s minds they will have “11/4/23” inked on their big toes when it’s all said and done.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Towson Athletics
Issue 283: October/November 2023
Originally published Oct. 18, 2023. Updated Oct. 30.