GAME ON! Fall 2025
WOMEN'S SOCCER
Rachel Katz ’28 (left) and Maria Utz ’27 (right) celebrate Utz’s goal in Wesleyan’s 3–0 victory over Amherst on October 4. This was just the second win for the Cardinals over the Mammoths since 1994.
FOOTBALL
Through the first four weeks of the season, the 2024 NESCAC Champion Wesleyan football team looked even more dominant than last year. The Cardinals went 3–1, outscoring the opposition by a combined 72 points in those contests.
The season opened on a beautiful September afternoon at Corwin Stadium on Andrus Field, where the Cardinals put up 24 unanswered points to defeat perennial league power Middlebury for the third straight season. In their first road game of the year, Wesleyan was tripped up in a 22–20 loss at Tufts in a game that could have easily gone their way, but the team responded the following week in a dominant 23–7 road win at Bates. The Bobcats were the only team to defeat the Cardinals last season—a 24–13 triumph for Bates in Middletown—and revenge was on Wesleyan’s mind that day as the defense generated five sacks and nine tackles for loss in the win.
Back at home again for the first time since Week 1, the Cardinals laid down a marker, scoring 42 unanswered points in a 56–14 blowout win over Hamilton. Wesleyan scored a touchdown on eight consecutive drives to finish the game, scoring their most points in a game since 2016 and recording the second-largest win over Hamilton in 54 all-time meetings.
Coming into the year with 15 new starters—eight on defense and seven on offense—there were opportunities aplenty for new faces to establish themselves and continue a steady culture of winning. Junior quarterback Matt Fitzsimons ’27 has already established himself as one of the best signal callers in the NESCAC, having thrown for 960 yards with nine touchdowns through four games. He earned the New England Football Writers Association Week 6 Gold Helmet Award, given to the top player at the Division II/Division III level each week, after throwing for 365 yards with five touchdowns in the 42-point win over the Continentals.
Donte Kelly ’29 and Blake Newcomb ’27 formed the best pass-catching duo in the NESCAC, as the pair combined for 41 catches for 692 yards and six touchdowns through four games. The defense was led by All-NESCAC First Team selection Dylan Connors ’26 while the unit had at least one interception in each of the first four games of the year.
MEN'S SOCCER
One year removed from making it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012, the Wesleyan men’s soccer team is out to prove last year was no fluke. And thus far, the Cardinals are delivering.
After a sluggish start saw the Cardinals win just twice in their opening five games, Wesleyan has hit their stride with several late winners over perennial league and national powers. The most thrilling result of them all came on September 20 in Lewiston, Maine, where it looked as if Wesleyan and Bates would finish in a scoreless tie. The Cardinals, however, continued to push into the final minute and were awarded a corner kick with under 15 seconds remaining. As the ball was sent in by Aiden Londergan ’27, Riley Harvey ’29 reached the ball first, scoring a dramatic game-winner on the last touch of the game just as the clock expired. Harvey, a first-year defender on the team, was awarded NESCAC Player of the Week honors for his heroics.
The following weekend, Wesleyan faced a tall task traveling to face nationally ranked Tufts and Middlebury on consecutive days. The Cardinals started with a 1–1 tie at Tufts, where Sam Wheeler ’27 scored the game-tying goal with 17 minutes remaining to secure the result. Then Wesleyan did something they hadn’t done since 2009: beat Middlebury in Vermont. The Cardinals got a goal from Londergan early in the second half and goalkeeper Mathis Blanc ’26 did the rest, making five of his eight saves in the final 45 minutes, earning NESCAC Player of the Week honors.
More drama came on the team’s Alumni Weekend, when the Cardinals celebrated the NESCAC 2005 Championship winning team with a thrilling 2–1 win over Little Three rival Amherst on Jackson Field. Wheeler once again scored late, this time with just under 13 minutes left, to send the Cardinals past the defending national champions and keep their undefeated record in NESCAC play intact.
WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Since 2017, no team on campus has had a better win percentage than women’s volleyball, and the traditional power is off to another strong start in 2025. Through their first 13 matches, the Cardinals were 12–1 with the sole loss coming in four sets to a Top 10–ranked Johns Hopkins team that made the NCAA Semifinals last season.
The Cardinals largely dominated through the first half of their season, winning nine matches in three-set sweeps including a recent triumph over NYU where Wesleyan won the first set by a 25–4 scoreline. The highlight of the year thus far came on September 19 when Wesleyan pulled out a match-clinching 30–28 fourth set win to knock off previously unbeaten and Top 15–ranked Colby in Silloway Gymnasium.
Coming off a season that saw Wesleyan deal with multiple injuries to key players and miss out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016, the Cardinals resumed their traditional dominant ways, going 12–1 for the third time in the past four seasons.
Two-time All-American and NESCAC Player of the Year Sophia Lindus ’26 returned after having missed all of last season due to injury. Sophomore outside hitter Siena Steines ’28 commenced a breakthrough sophomore year, leading the team on offense, while junior libero Elliana Moreno ’27 became the best defensive player in the NESCAC all season, earning NESCAC Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career.
