TOWSON, Md. - As the Landmark Conference counts down to the start of the 2026-27 academic year, the Conference will revisit some of the best stories from its member institutions through the Landmark Rewind series.
Running August 3-14, Landmark Rewind will spotlight one Landmark institution each weekday by featuring two stories originally produced by that school's athletics department. From student-athlete features and championship moments to community impact and campus initiatives, the series gives fans another opportunity to discover the people and programs that make the Landmark Conference special before fall competition begins.
There was nothing particularly flashy about the pass that led to Aubrey Williamson ’26’s record-breaking 20th career assist for the Lycoming College women’s soccer team. It was just a simple right-footed touch pass after she controlled a one-hop kick across the top of the 18-yard-box. The ball rolled less than 10 yards from Williamson’s foot to where Madison Maihle ’25 met it with a booming shot across the goalbox that ricocheted off the bottom of the goal standard high into the left corner netting.
“I got the ball, and my back was towards the goal,” Williamson said. “I didn’t know where Madison was, but I heard her screaming. We’ve played with each other a lot – I’ve always been on her side of the field, so I just played the ball to where I heard her. When I saw her make that run and shoot it and see it going in, it was the best feeling ever.”
Maihle rushed over to Williamson and wrapped her in an embrace seconds before the other eight field players found their way to them. The goal gave Lycoming a 2-1 lead over Moravian University in a Landmark Conference semifinal, lifting the 2025 team on its way to a plethora of firsts, among them – its first 15-win season, its first postseason win in program history and its first appearance in a conference final.
“For Madison to get that goal – she played defense and never really got the acknowledgement or credit that she should have for what she did for this team – it was really, really awesome to see,” Williamson said. “The whole game didn’t feel real, honestly. Even before the game started, I had a feeling we would win. The whole team was on the same page with the same goal.”
During her first three years at Lycoming, the criminal justice major has been a part of a flourishing era for the women’s soccer team, helping it to its first postseason appearance and regional ranking from the United Soccer Coaches and the NCAA in 2022 and its many accomplishments in 2024. A program that had only two 10-win seasons in its first 25 years now has four in its last five. It’s been a long building process for eighth-year head coach Kenny Fern, and it is clearly paying off, thanks to selfless players like Williamson.
“Aubrey gives 100 percent and leads the team by example,” Fern said. “She is an exemplary student. On the field, what she has done that’s really impressive is that as much as she works on her individual skills, what she is great at is working and communicating with her teammates to make the team better.”
Her dedication has paid off, as she became just the fourth player in program history to earn all-region honors after posting six goals and nine assists during the 2024 season, her second straight nine-assist campaign after posting two as a first-year player in 2022.
The assists shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone that knows Williamson, though. She’s been assisting for even longer than she’s been playing soccer.
“My sister, Shannon, just turned 18 in March,” Williamson said. “She was diagnosed with WWOX during my senior year of high school. She was born in 2007, the year the disease was first classified. She is not verbal, but you can tell when she’s mad, happy, annoyed because she shows it on her face.”
The list of surgeries and adversity that Shannon has faced is long: seizures within the first two months of life; inability to crawl, walk, or talk; inability to sit upright unassisted; feeding problem requiring a G-tube; difficulty breathing; scoliosis; severe cognitive impairment, and other ailments. Though she is 18, her body is the size of a 4-5-year-old.
“She is my best friend,” Williamson said. “I am so close with her. I hang out with her and watch her anytime my mom, who is a single parent with four daughters, needs help. I’ve been helping my mom with Shannon ever since I can remember. I had to grow up quicker.”
Williamson’s oldest sister, Emily, played soccer and ran track and field at Elizabethtown College, and her sister, Jessica, a year older than Aubrey, was an all-conference soccer player at Delaware Valley University.
“All of us have always been really close, probably because of Shannon,” Williamson said. “Shannon has always been one of my biggest supporters, even if she didn’t really want to come to my games. She’s been to my games since I started playing when I was six, all my club, all my high school games, and some of my college games.”
The choice to come to Lycoming College, two and a half hours away, did come with a share of homesickness, but Williamson said her teammates immediately put her at ease once she made it to campus.
“It’s definitely nice when you can just walk down the hall and hang out with someone for the night,” she said. “It was a huge help for all of them to help when I was missing Shannon, my mom, and sisters.”
Since then, it’s been Aubrey who’s been repaying that assist with her own assists – a school-record 20-and-counting as she opens her senior year.
“I’m very excited for this year, being my senior year,” she said. “Obviously, we made it to the conference finals last year, and we want to get back to that and win this year. We didn’t lose a lot of players on an offense that we’ve been building during my four years here. If we do our job, we’re going to be OK.”