Katelyn Rowland had a homecoming season for Bay FC in 2024, and she made it the last of her professional soccer career.
The 30-year-old goalkeeper from Walnut Creek announced her retirement from the sport Friday afternoon, just over a month before Bay FC’s regular-season opener.
She took over the starting job last April and made 21 appearances — all starts — for Bay FC last season, including the 2-1 playoff quarterfinal loss in extra time to the Washington Spirit. She recorded 56 saves and allowed 28 goals, keeping five clean sheets.
Rowland won four NWSL championships over her 10-year career, in her rookie season (Kansas City), her second year (Western New York) and twice with the North Carolina Courage.
“Thank you to everyone who has made this journey truly incredible — my teammates who have become family, my coaches in Carolina who were instrumental to my success, and all the coaches who helped along the way,” Rowland said in a team release. “To my family, none of this would have been possible without you. Playing at home in the final year of my career was a dream come true.”
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Bay FC selected Rowland from North Carolina in their expansion draft last winter. She competed for playing time with Melissa Lowder and Lysianne Proulx in the leadup to the club’s inaugural season, and after Lowder tore her ACL in preseason, Proulx started for Bay’s first month-plus. Then Proulx was injured in a training session for the Canadian women’s team, leaving Rowland to take Bay’s starting job.
Lowder is back with Bay, which also has former University of North Carolina keeper Emmie Allen and Jordan Silkowitz as goalkeepers on the roster. Silkowitz arrived in a trade for Kayla Sharples last August after Proulx transferred to Italian side Juventus.
The club is currently training in Southern California and will play a pair of exhibition matches Sunday (against Seattle Reign FC) and next Saturday, Feb. 22 (against San Diego Wave FC). Keeper performances in those matches and training could go a long way to determining who will start the regular-season opener March 16 at Utah.
