After a successful September that saw the Cardinals go 6–2 and pick up 2 wins against top 10 nationally ranked NESCAC opponents no. 8 Bates and no. 7 Tufts, the team turned its attention to October, where they would begin with an out-of-conference battle against Union College before finishing the regular season with 6 consecutive NESCAC matchups. 

The Cardinals faced Union on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and the Chargers proved a tough battle early as the teams traded first-half goals. The Red and Black were able to pull away in the second half, scoring four unanswered points, including two goals in less than a minute by captain and forward Georgia Adams ’26 and midfielder Kenzie Mauro ’27, to secure a 5–2 victory in their fourth game of the season with five goals.

The Red and Black then faced one of their toughest stretches of the year, playing three games in seven days, which included both of their Little Three matchups with a road game against Trinity sandwiched in between.

“We were 2–2 [in conference] going into the Amherst game, but we had the confidence of having played the historically strongest teams in conference already,” captain and midfielder Kenzie Kelly ’25 said. “So, going into Amherst, we can’t really see ourselves as the underdogs anymore. We have to treat ourselves with the confidence that we should have to win these games.”

The Cards were looking to snap their 20-game losing streak against the Mammoths. It was a fairly even matchup, with both teams firing 10 shots. However, the Mammoths scored two goals in the first seven minutes, and although the Red and Black held them scoreless the rest of the game and got a late goal from Leila Feldman ’28, it was not enough to snap the win streak.

With this loss behind them, the Cards traveled to Trinity on Wednesday for a midweek bout. They returned to their winning ways, scoring a goal in each quarter to defeat the Bantams 4–1. Adams and Ava Galdenzi ’24 MA ’25 each scored two goals, and all three goalies recorded a save to secure the Red and Black’s first road win against the Bantams since 2005.

“After Amherst, we wanted to focus on how we play,” captain and defender Imani Ochieng ’25 said. “I think we really controlled the pace of that game and set the tone for what we wanted to do from the first whistle.”

The next battle was against undefeated, no. 3 nationally ranked Williams. The Ephs dominated in the first quarter, but goalkeeper Audrey Pace ’26 kept the Cards in it, turning away all five of the Ephs shots on goal. The Ephs scored in the second and third quarters to open a two-goal lead, and like the Amherst game, the Cardinals scored a goal in the fourth but were not able to complete the comeback.

“Williams is just so relentless, and they come out so hard,” Adams said. “We just haven’t figured out how to stop them from going up. So I think next year, we’re focusing on holding them scoreless as long as possible so we can set ourselves up to be one goal ahead of them rather than one goal behind.”

After an intense string of games, the Cardinals were rewarded with a full week off, their longest break of the season. They traveled up to Bowdoin on Saturday, Oct. 19, looking to build off their win last year, which snapped a 12-game losing streak against the Polar Bears in a thrilling 3–2 victory won in a penalty shootout.

It was a back-and-forth game. The Cardinals struck first on a goal from forward Teddy Tolbert ’28. The Polar Bears tied it up in the second quarter, but Kelly regained the lead for the Red and Black late in the third. The Polar Bears again pulled even with seven minutes remaining to send the game into overtime. Four minutes into the first overtime period, captain and midfielder Helen Deretchin ’25 fired a backhand inside the right post to give the Cards a 3–2 victory. This marked the third straight year where Deretchin scored an overtime game-winner. The Cardinals have had three overtime game-winning goals since 2011, and all three have come from Deretchin’s stick.

“I am in the mentality that overtime is not to showcase the better team, it’s to showcase the team with the most grit,” Deretchin said. “And that’s what I thought about during Bowdoin. It’s about who’s gonna push the hardest to get this goal.”

With this win over Bowdoin, the Cardinals climbed to no. 10 in the national rankings, marking the first time in program history that they were top ten in the country.

After another full week off, they hosted Colby for their senior game on Oct. 26 with the potential to clinch a playoff berth. The Cards got on the board first as Ochieng set up Adams for her 10th goal of the season. The Mustangs scored later in the first quarter and took a 2–1 lead early in the third. 35 seconds later, Adams tied the game, and 43 seconds after that, she scored her third of the game to put the Red and Black up 3–2. It was Adams’ first career hat trick and the first time since 2012 that a Cardinal had completed one. The Cardinals continued their assault as midfielder Sydney Atwood ’25 scored her first career goal to open up a 4–2 lead. Neither team managed to score in the final quarter, and with that, the Red and Black clinched the victory as well as a spot in the NESCAC Tournament for the second straight year. For Adams’ dominant performance versus the Mules, she was awarded NESCAC Player of the Week honors for the second time in her career. 

The Cardinals’ final regular season game came against Conn. College on Oct. 29, and if they emerged the winners, it would earn them a first-round home game. The Cardinals wasted no time, scoring three times in the first half with a goal from midfielder Sydney Cameron ’26 and two from Kelly. The Cardinals went on to win 5–1, with goals by Mauro and forward Feldman. With this victory, the Cardinals completed their best regular season since 2004 and earned the no. 4 seed in the NESCAC Tournament, which granted them their first home playoff game since 2005. Despite the excitement of such an accomplishment, the Cards knew there was more left to be done.

“I think that we felt like we had accomplished something, but we weren’t quite done yet,” Ochieng said. “And going into this game, we knew how crucially focused we needed to be in every single aspect.”

The Bobcats earned the no. 5 seed and entered the matchup seeking revenge after being handed a 5–1 loss in the regular season. Both teams scored in the second period, but the remaining 50 minutes featured no goals, sending the game into a shootout. The Red and Black scored their first two attempts, but couldn’t score again and fell to the Bobcats 3–2 in the shootout. 

But the season was not over for the Red and Black. On Sunday, Nov. 10, the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Committee announced that Wesleyan earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. Additionally, because they boasted an 11–5 record and sat at no. 11 in the nation, they earned the right to host a first-round game.

“We were all wondering if we were going to make it, who we were gonna play, if we were gonna host,” Adams said. “Just a lot of unknowns. But it was such a relief. It was so cool to finally do something for the first time in program history so that was a really exciting milestone.”   

On Wednesday, Nov. 13, the Cardinals welcomed the Ithaca College Bombers for a showdown under the lights with a fired up crowd cheering them on. The first quarter was scoreless, but the Cardinals struck early in the second period when Tolbert fired a reverse sweep shot that floated over the Bombers’ goalkeeper. The Bombers picked up the offensive intensity and had three penalty corners late in the second period, but the Cards defense stood strong to maintain a 1–0 lead as halftime hit, fueled in part by the energy from the fans.

“When field hockey becomes a performance, I feel like it unleashes this creative side,” Deretchin said. “Once you get a crowd, you want to impress them. It was cool because we were able to do individual skills that we haven’t done really ever, but then transform that into team play.”  

The Cardinals’ offense came out of the break firing, recording seven shots in the third quarter with five of them being on goal. While none of them found the back of the net, their offensive pressure finally paid off in the fourth quarter when Adams scored to double the Cardinals’ lead. The game finished 2–0 in the Red and Black’s favor. Kelly assisted on both of the Cards’ goals and Pace recorded her first shutout of the season. 

With this win, they advanced to the second round for a rematch against the Ephs.

“We definitely saw it coming,” Kelly said. “We had to take care of business with Ithaca, but I think all of us were kind of expecting the Williams game and looking ahead to that. We were really excited about it and felt that Williams is a very comparable and beatable team.”

It was not an ideal start for the Cardinals as the Ephs scored three goals in less than 2 minutes to open up a 3–0 first-quarter lead. The Cardinals did not waver though, as Adams chipped into the lead with a second-quarter goal. She added another in the third quarter to make it a one-goal game with 24 minutes remaining. The Red and Black couldn’t find the equalizer, though, and fell to the Ephs in the second round 3–2. This marked the sixth straight matchup where the Ephs bested the Cardinals by a goal. 

Despite this loss, it was still a wildly successful season for the Cards. They reached the national top 10 for the first time in program history, secured their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and win, and set a program record for the most goals scored in a single season.

The Cardinals saw their success rewarded when the All-NESCAC awards came out on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Ochieng made First Team for the second straight season, becoming the first Cardinal defender to ever earn First Team All-NESCAC honors twice. Adams made Second Team All-NESCAC, having totaled 36 points on the season, the second most in a single season in program history. Kelly also made Second Team for the first time in her career, becoming just the fifth midfielder in program history to earn All-NESCAC honors.

Going forward, the Cardinals are fully confident that all the progress they’ve made as a program this season will translate into even greater success in the coming years.

“It’s really exciting to be able to watch the people that you’ve worked so closely with carry this on after we’re gone,” Kelly said. “Knowing what we’ve accomplished this season and the tone that it’ll set next season is really exciting and how many more people are caring about and watching field hockey now.”

Georgia Adams is a Staff Writer for The Argus. 

Erin Byerly can be reached at ebyerly@wesleyan.edu.

Sam Weitzman-Kurker can be reached at sweitzmankur@wesleyan.edu.