There is no greater motivator than unfinished business, and heading into 2025, the Wesleyan women’s soccer team had plenty of it.
Their 2024 regular season was historic, with the team going 12–0–3 and capturing the NESCAC regular season title. However, both their NESCAC championship and NCAA championship hopes were quickly squandered. An upset by Colby in the NESCAC playoffs and a second round loss to Scranton University in the NCAAs sent the Red and Black home disappointed in their late-season performance. This year, though, the Cards look to return to the same stages as last year, hoping to finish what they started in 2024.
While they graduated five impact players last season, they gained eight first-years and a former team member in assistant coach Emily Ribatt ’21 MA ’22. Ribatt was a three-year captain in her tenure for the Red and Black, which included the team’s 2021 run to the NCAA Final Four for the first time in program history. After a brief stint playing in Spain, Ribatt returned to Jackson Field with the same attitude she shared as a winning player for Wes, and her impact was felt early and often this season.
“[Coach Ribatt] has brought a really great culture,” captain Riley Buehler ’26 said. “She’s brought a possession style to Wesleyan that we’ve tried to adapt before, and I think she’s done a really great job of implementing what she’s learned abroad and just bringing a new element to our team.”
The Red and Black began their 2025 campaign with three non-conference matches, which they promptly dominated. Wes made mincemeat of Johnson & Wales University on Saturday, Sept. 6 (1–0), Western Connecticut State University on Sunday, Sept. 7 (5–0), and Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, Sept. 13 (3–0). These early matches showed strong signs for both the offense and defense, as the Cards honed their scoring skills and shutdown defense on the backend.
“It was just really good for team chemistry and getting our confidence back,” Sheridan Snow ’28 said. “A lot of our games last year were pretty close games, only a one or two goal difference. So a big thing was just getting that confidence. Defensively, it’s nice to see our work paying off and [our team] not getting scored on. That’s one of the biggest things on the team. We’re committed to being hard to beat. To see that in the beginning games of the season was nice.”
NESCAC play for the Red and Black began on Saturday, Sept. 13, as they played host to the Hamilton Continentals. While the first half remained neutral, Hamilton made the first dent, scoring in the 56th minute. While Wes put up 23 shots over the course of the match, it took them until their final one to get the ball in the back of the net. In the 88th minute, Waverly Meyers ’26 scored a header from a Kerenza Leahey ’27 corner kick, tying the game at 1–1. While it wasn’t the win Wes was looking for, the late game heroics from Leahey and Meyers gave the team momentum heading into the next week.
After a 6–0 non-conference win against Springfield College on Tuesday, Sept. 16, the Cards traveled north to Lewiston, Maine for a match against Bates. In an intense match between the two schools, the Red and Black’s defense was on display, with their back line holding strong and allowing zero shots from the Bobcats’ offense. While the Wesleyan offense had many opportunities on offense, including 20 corner kicks and 20 shots, they could not score, and ultimately the match with Bates ended in a scoreless tie.
“That [match] was really eye opening,” captain and goalkeeper Molly Brumbach ’26 said. “We realized we need[ed] to switch on to a whole different competition level…. Those two first ties were learning opportunities to go forward and put pressure on the momentum, leaning into being uncomfortable on the offense.”
Included in this infuriating loss was an injury to captain Tori Rideau-Winds ’26, an anchor of the team’s defense. While the loss of Rideau-Winds on the field may have blindsided other teams, the Cards persevered, with Payton Radosti ’29 stepping up and continuing the Red and Black’s impressive defensive play.
Snow talked about the team culture that has fostered a “next woman up” mentality over the course of the season.
“One of the things our coaches always tell us is that we, no matter what, always compete incredibly hard at practice so everyone’s prepared to play in a game whenever their name is called,” Snow said. “It’s always been a ‘we before me’ culture…so if something happens to someone, we know that everyone behind them will do what’s best for the team and not best for themselves, so everyone’s prepared to step in whenever.”
After the struggles in Lewiston, the Cards looked to get back on the right track on Tuesday, Sept. 23, when Trinity came to town. Always a tough matchup, the Cards and the Bantams have had quite the history. The last time Trinity played in Middletown, Wes won a grueling NESCAC quarterfinal in 2023, winning by penalty shootout. The Red and Black continued their recent success against the Bantams, swiftly defeating their Connecticut rival, 4–0.
“From the start, we wanted to come out and make sure that we were really winning every chance,” Maria Utz ’27 said. “We didn’t just do that in the first half, we did it throughout the whole game. Once we scored our first goal, the intensity just continued to get higher and higher, and I think that’s why we were able to put them away. Their confidence diminished and ours grew.”
Sitting at 5–0–2 (1–0–2 NESCAC), the Red and Black faced their toughest weekend yet, a two-game stretch against no. 6 ranked Tufts and no. 10 Middlebury. On Saturday, Sept. 27, the first half was mostly dominated by the Jumbos, but Brumbach’s five saves and the work of the Wesleyan defense kept the Jumbos off the scoreboard. In the second half, the Cards emphasized a stronger offensive attack, outshooting Tufts 10–6. However, like Wes, the Jumbos held their own and stalled all the Red and Black’s chances, bringing the match to a scoreless close.
Buehler was proud of the defensive effort the Cards displayed to keep the sixth-best team in all of Division III off the scoreboard.
“Tufts played a similar style to us, so I think it was kind of a match of who did their job the best,” Buehler said. “There were really big ebbs and flows in that game. There were times when it felt like we were just defending minute after minute after minute, and then there were other times where I really thought we were going to find the back of the net…. I feel like a tie was a very fair result, and it also just showed that we are competing with the top teams in the nation.”
Wes did not have much time to rest, as they made the trip to Middlebury, Vt. the next day to play the Panthers. A Meyers goal in the 12th minute put the Cards up early, but that lead only lasted two minutes. Middlebury equalized the match in the 14th minute and took the lead in the 23rd. Despite a valiant effort from the Red and Black, they could not generate enough offense to strike back against the Panthers, and they suffered their first loss of the season, 2–1.
Last season, the Red and Black suffered their first loss of the season well into November during the NESCAC playoffs. This season, it was coming as September came to a close. While this could be seen as a negative, Buehler looked on the bright side and encouraged the team to use the loss to fuel future momentum.
“That game showed us that it’s okay to lose,” Buehler said. “We’d been a bit afraid of failure up until that point, and being able to respond from that has been really good for our team’s success. We’re able to adapt, adjust our training, adjust our formation, adjust our playing style, and it shows us what doesn’t work, which is almost as valuable as showing us that we can score four goals in a game.”
On Saturday, Oct. 4, the Cards hosted no. 23 Amherst, a team they have struggled against in recent years. As Brumbach and Buehler told The Argus, the team’s seniors had faced the Mammoths five times before in their Wesleyan tenure, during which they were outscored 7–0, including the 2022 NESCAC Championship. The importance of this regular season matchup could not be understated, as Wes looked to finally take down Amherst and bounce back from their first loss of the year.
Utz put the ball in the back of the net in the 27th minute, scoring the Cards’ first goal against Amherst since 2018. But they weren’t done just yet. Midfielder Rachel Katz ’28 added to their lead in the 54th minute. Meredith Feiner ’28 joined the scoring party six minutes later, as a cross from Utz found Feiner’s foot and the net almost instantaneously. The Red and Black defense suffocated the Mammoths’ various runs late in the game, ending the game in a rejoiceful 3–0 win for Wes.
“That was the first game where I could confidently say all thirds of the field—defense, midfield, and offense—were all working so well together,” Brumbach said. “It really felt like things clicked. We learned a lot [from Middlebury] and wanted to come out with our best foot forward. And we were all really driven to make sure that it was…a comfortable win.”
Utz’s goal against Amherst was her seventh in ten games, and her three points against the Mammoths put her at 19 points on the season. She leads the NESCAC in shots (49), shots on goal (27), game-winning goals (4), and points (19), while also being tied for the lead in goals (7).
After the Amherst win, the Cards traveled to Williamstown, Mass. to face no. 9 Williams for the Little Three title on Saturday, Oct. 11. The Red and Black went down early, as an Ephs goal within the first ten minutes put Wes on the defensive. While they battled back and forth for the rest of the match, Wes was unable to put any of their eight shots in the back of the net, losing 1–0.
“We were a bit unlucky letting in a goal early, but more than anything I think our energy wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be, and that affected our confidence throughout the match,” Utz wrote in a message to The Argus. “Going into the rest of the season, we’ll be working on building that consistency and making sure our confidence and intensity stay strong from the first whistle to the last.”
With the loss to the Ephs, Wes falls to 6–2–3 (2–2–3). With four matches to go, three of which are against NESCAC opponents, they sit at seventh in the NESCAC. As the Red and Black hit the home stretch of the regular season, Brumbach looks forward to finishing the season strong and turning some heads come playoff time.
“I just wanna come out of this weekend with more energy to drive and motivate us when we meet these teams again in the postseason,” Brumbach wrote in a message to The Argus. “If we can take one thing away from our game I hope it can be motivation to come out stronger the next time we step foot on the field.”
Max Forstein can be reached at mforstein@wesleyan.edu.
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