OMAHA, Neb. – College of Saint Mary is pleased to announce that Maria Gonçalves has signed to continue her soccer career at the school in the 2025-26 academic year.

Gonçalves attended school in her native Brazil until 2022. She graduated from Layton Christian Academy in Layton, Utah, in 2023, and has spent the past two years at Iowa Western Community College, where she won a national championship in the fall of 2023. She is the daughter of Armando Luiz Matioli Carneiro and Iara Miranda Gonçalves.

At IWCC, one of Gonçalves' coaches was current CSM Soccer Coach Jamison Parkhill.

"Maria is a hard worker on the field,'' Parkhill said. "She will help bolster our front line. She has the ability to score or assist. We will look for big things from her in a CSM uniform.''

Gonçalves also is an accomplished basketball player. In Brazil, her team placed second in the state in 2019 and she was a team captain. At her school in Utah, her basketball team placed seventh at state and her soccer team was the state champion.

Gonçalves' sports hero is Stephen Curry, and her greatest sports moment to date is winning the national championship at Iowa Western.  She said there were several reasons why she chose CSM.

"I liked the facilities, I already knew the head coach and I have some friends on the team,'' she said.