Springfield

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at Springfield

11/6/2025 | 7:00 PM


Nov. 06 (Thu) / 7:00 PM


at Springfield

Boston, MA — Maeve Steckley (Rochester, MA) and Abigail Johnson (Middletown, CT) each recorded a goal and an assist to lift sixth-seeded and visiting WPI to a 2-1 triumph over third-seeded Emerson in a NEWMAC Women’s Soccer Tournament quarterfinal contest played Wednesday on Rotch Field in Boston.
 
The Crimson and Gray followed a similar path last year, falling to the Lions in the regular season (2-1 in Worcester on October 22nd) before capturing the rematch in the postseason less than two weeks later on Emerson’s home field in the NEWMAC Tournament (1-0 in semifinals).  Furthermore, the Engineers will now travel to second-seeded Springfield, a 4-2 winner tonight over seventh-seeded Coast Guard, on Thursday in a 7pm semifinal matchup.  WPI fell to the Pride in mid-October, like they did in 2024 before upsetting SC in the NEWMAC quarterfinals a season ago.

With the win, WPI moves to 11-6-3 on the season and advances to the NEWMAC Tournament semifinals for the fifth time in the last nine seasons of competition for 13-year head coach Steph Riley-Schafer, including the last two with co-head coach Melissa Hart alongside on the touchline.  Emerson completes its season with a 9-7-4 record.

 

After not denting the scoring column until the 70th minute in the matchup two weeks ago, WPI struck at the 10:07 mark on Tuesday.  The buildup began with Katie Adiletta (Bolton, MA) obtaining possession for the Boynton Hillers near midfield.  The sophomore connected with forward with Madison Shaw (Cheshire, MA), who sent it to a right-to left-cutting Steckley.  The playmaking forward sent a streaking Johnson a nifty pass toward the left side of the goal and the junior tucked it past the Emerson goalie for her team-leading eighth goal of the year and put the guests ahead 1-0.

 

The Engineers got off to an even quicker start in the second half.  A pair of quick passes found the ball on Johnson’s foot on the left side at midfield and the junior returned the favor from earlier when she sent a beautiful ball between two defenders and onto the foot of Steckley who continuing sprinting towards a charging goalie and deposited the ball just to the left of the Emerson netminder and into the goal for her seventh tally of 2025 just 1:52 into the second stanza.

 

The two squads would settle in for the next half hour with neither team having the better of the action until Emerson began a surge in the final 12 minutes.  Rowan McCrary (Saratoga, CA) found a cross in the middle of the box and had unleashed a strong shot but hit the right post with 11:44 to go.  The Lions continued to pressure and were rewarded about 90 seconds later when Presley King (Lake Forest, CA) dropped a pass from the right side into the box where it was collected by Zoe Simmons (Los Angles, CA) and the junior, who was tightly-guard and was knocked off-balance but able to knock the ball past an outstretched WPI goalie for Simmons’ third goal of the season. 

 

Now trailing 2-1 with under 10 minutes to go, Emerson’s best chance to equalize would be its very next chance and again, the hosts found themselves unlucky.  Kaylin O’Meara (Littleton, MA) collected a loose ball on the upper corner of the right box and send a lovely high-arching that WPI goalie Ayla Verheul (Naarden, Netherlands) made a great effort to deflect into the upper right of the goal post and out of play for a corner and deny the rookie the tying goal a it proved to the Lions last shot of the night.

 

Verheul () registered three saves in a winning effort in net for the Engineers while Emerson’s Hailey Forman (Saratoga, CA) was credited with eight stops in a strong effort for the hosts.

 

On the night, WPI held a 16-11 edge on shots (10-4 on goal) while Emerson attempted four of the match’s five corners.

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