c/o Sterling Rodas

The women’s soccer team’s historic season continues as it advances to the Sweet Sixteen NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. Last week, the Cards beat Penn State Behrend and Stevens Institute of Technology at home in the first two rounds, earning a bid to the next stage of competition.

In the first half against Penn State Behrend, Wesleyan started off strong. The team nearly went up 1–0 just under two minutes into the game when Audrey Lavey ’23 hit the crossbar with a header from an excellent pass from Grace Devanny ’23. This pressure continued throughout the first half as Wesleyan registered eight shots but could not find the back of the net before halftime.

In the second half, the Red and Black were finally able to get on the board in the 50th minute when Remi Feuerman ’22 scored her second goal of the season off of a pass from Dani Milovanov ’23, earning Wes a 1–0 lead. That lead was enough to propel the Cardinals to their first-ever NCAA tournament victory, as they kept the Lions’ offense off the scoreboard for the rest of the game. On the stat sheet, the Red and Black dominated, outshooting Penn State Behrend 21–8. Goalie Sarah Hammond ’22 made four saves in the win.

Wesleyan then took on Stevens in the second round, a matchup that ended in a victory by an identical margin of 1–0. Like the previous game, the Cardinals had the majority of chances in the first half, but could not find a way to put the ball past the Ducks’ keeper. As a result, both teams went into halftime scoreless. In the second half, the Red and Black once again put major pressure on the Ducks’ defense as they looked for the opening goal, but took until the 81st minute for them to score as Lavey scored the game-winner on a deflection in the 18-yard box. Despite the close scoreline, Wesleyan was once again the more aggressive offensive of the two teams, outshooting Stevens 19–10 while Hammond only had to make three saves.

Overall, midfielder Andi Wiley ’22 said she was happy with the team’s performance in the two victories.

“It was a hard-fought weekend in our first NCAA appearance,” Wiley wrote in a message to The Argus. “Our defense came through big. We had a lot of great chances on offense and plan to work on finishing this week in practice to capitalize on those opportunities this upcoming weekend. Overall, I am very proud of everyone on our team and we are very excited to head to Boston to compete again.”

Midfielder Isabelle Martin ’23 highlighted the team’s tenacity on the field.

“I think the key for us in both games was our resilience and sticking to our game plan,” Martin said. “We had some great chances on goal that didn’t go in early in the games so we had to keep pushing and doing what we have done all season to get the job done.”

Next up, the Cards take on second-ranked Johns Hopkins in the Sweet 16 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge on Saturday, Nov. 20. The winner of that game will take on either Carnegie Mellon or MIT on Sunday for the right to go to the Final Four in Greensboro, NC in two weeks. Hopkins is coming off a win against Little Three rival Amherst in the second round, so this will be a tough test for the Red and Black.

Martin says that the key to victory for the Cards this weekend is to play with conviction and believe that they can compete with any team, no matter the ranking.

“I think we need to come into this weekend confident in our abilities as a team,” she said. “It is exciting to have made it this far and now we have to believe that we can compete with any team in this tournament. We have confidence in each other and know that if we trust in our game we will be successful.”

David Gottlieb can be reached at dgottlieb@wesleyan.edu.