The momentum has been building for several years, and this year saw the women’s soccer team at Wagner College in Staten Island achieve its best-ever results. The team won its first Northeast Conference (NEC) Championship (winning the semi-final and final games in overtime) and made its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Tournament.
“Obviously, we had a very talented group this year,” said head coach Phil Casella, now in his ninth season with the Seahawks (eight seasons fully played due to the pandemic). “Every year, we put out goals and expectations. For me, personally, from the start of taking over this program, that has been getting to a consistent level of competing for championships and being in a playoff run. That has taken place over the last three years.”
Soccer is a fall sport. Only four teams compete in the NEC tournament, with the winner advancing to the national tournament. A huge breakthrough for Wagner came when they qualified for the NEC tournament in 2023 and ’24. When the returning players reconvened for training last spring, Casella saw a more connected group that enjoyed working with each other.
“You saw the connections grow,” said Casella, a Queens native. “This turned into something very special this season. From the get-go, when we started on August 1st, things started to flow from that standpoint. The icing on the cake was getting back to a playoff run, having the opportunity to compete for a championship, and then, of course, to win it all with this group was very special.”
The Seahawks finished the season 11–3–6. Wagner faced West Virginia in the opening round of the tournament, falling 5–0. The team does lose six players to graduation, but everyone else is expected to return. To send the seniors off with a championship and national tournament experience motivates not only the returning players but also incoming players to make even more history, Casella noted.
“Over the last two or three years, the players that have been involved in the program, you saw that there is belief and these kids, when they are mentally prepared and ready to play, can play with anybody,” Casella said. “We’ve shown that. To do what we did this year and to get to the national tournament, which is talked about by everybody…shows the belief that these ladies can do whatever they want if they put their mind to it.”