THE OFFICIAL HOME OF McNEESE ATHLETICS

Sonia Carlson enters her third season as Cowgirls head coach for the 2026-27 season.

In her second season as head coach, Carlson bettered the Cowgirls record setting season in her first year (2025) as head coach by winning a program record 22 matches in 2026, leading McNeese to a 22-3 overall record and its first outright Southland Conference Regular Season Title with a perfet 9-0 conference record., for this Carlson was named Southland Conference "Coach of the Year". 

The SLC regular season title is only the second in program history and first regular season title since 2018 and Carlson being named SLC "Coach of the Year" is also the first time a McNeese coach earns the honor since 2018.

Also in 2026, McNeese produced the programs longest overall winning streak of 17 matches and longest conference winning streak of nine matches. 
 
For the second straight year, McNeese advanced to the Southland Conference Tournament but fell 4-2 to No. 4 Stephen F. Austin in the semifinals. 

Despite its loss in the Southland Conference Tournament, McNeese was invited to participate in the NIT Tournament held in Rome, Ga., the fist postseason appearance for the Cowgirls since 2018.  McNeese was eliminated in the first round, falling 4-0 to No. 3 seed Arkansas State. 

In her first season at McNeese, Carlson led the Cowgirls to a 19-7 overall record and a 5-4 conference record.  The 19 wins are the second most in program history.

McNeese advanced all the way to the quarterfinals of the 2025 Southland Conference Tournament before falling 4-2 to No. 3 Northwestern State to end their season.

The Cowgirls ended the 2025 season on a 19-match winning streak, the longest in program history.  Carlson coached the Southland Conference Player and Freshman of the Year in Salome Fluri and the SLC Newcomer of the Year in Ana Hollweg.

Fluri and Hollweg (doubles) were also named to the All-SLC first team as well as Elena Morales and Stella Rundova.  Hollweg was also a second team selection (singles) as was Alexa Martinez. 

Carlson was named head coach on June 17, 2024. Carlson came to McNeese after spending four very successful seasons as an associate head coach at Tarleton State where she helped lead the team to a WAC championship and tournament title appearances the last two seasons.
 
Carlson was instrumental in turning a Texan program into an elite one in their short NCAA Division I history. After claiming the Western Athletic Conference regular season title in 2022, Tarleton was the runner-up in its first conference tournament appearance in 2023, then repeated as runners-up in 2024.
 
During her time with the program and since becoming a Division I competitor, Carlson helped lead the Texans to an overall record of 63-25, including a 23-4 mark in conference matches. She’s also coached 14 All-Conference selections, including a WAC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.
 
Carlson, whose maiden name is Madronal, arrived at Tarleton State following a four-year playing career at the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA). During her time as a Roadrunner, she was a four-time member of the Conference USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll. She was a standout doubles performer, winning 19 doubles matches over her career, including 16 in her final two seasons.
 
Following her playing career, Carlson moved on to Stephen F. Austin as a graduate assistant coach. The Ladyjacks won 14 matches over her two seasons there, including a 7-7 record when the spring ended prematurely in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
A native of Barcelona, Spain, Carlson received a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from UTSA in 2018 and a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from SFA in 2020. She is married to Ryan Carlson, who played football at Incarnate Word.
      
                  OVERALL                       SLC                                  

Year	Won	Lost	Won	Lost	SLC FINISH/SLC TOURN. FINISH	NCAA/NIT
2025	19	7	5	4	6th/Quarterfinals
2026	22	3	9	0	1st/Semifinals	NIT (Rome, Ga.)
Total	41	10	14	4