The Saint Mary\u2019s College women\u2019s soccer team closed out its 2025 season with a 4-0 loss to Hope College on Tuesday, finishing with an 8-5-3 overall record and 2-5-1 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association play. Despite the tough ending, the Belles demonstrated resilience and growth throughout a season marked by exciting victories, hard-fought conference battles and opportunities for underclassmen to develop.<\/p>\n
Hope set the tone early in the first half, scoring in the eighth minute on a goal by Ainsley Harris assisted by Lauren Ellinger. The Flying Dutch quickly extended their lead, with Lina Rea and Heidi Berkey each finding the back of the net before halftime, putting Hope ahead 3-0 by the 24th minute. Saint Mary\u2019s showed fight in goal, however, as senior goalkeeper Keona Caraballo made eight saves.<\/p>\n
Offensively, Saint Mary\u2019s struggled to convert its opportunities, registering only one shot in the first half. Sophomore defensive player Isabella Kreydich came closest, taking a shot at the bottom center that was saved by Hope goalie Clara Feenstra. Despite the score, the team\u2019s passing and possession displayed moments of cohesion, particularly in the second half as junior forward Layne Ridderman and sophomore defensive player Danielle Escobedo pushed forward and challenged Hope\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n
The Belles faced a barrage of shots throughout the match, with Hope tallying 35 total shots compared to Saint Mary\u2019s five. However, Saint Mary\u2019s defense and Caraballo\u2019s performance kept the game from becoming more lopsided.<\/p>\n
Looking back on the season, the Belles experienced a mixture of highs and lows. Early non-conference wins highlighted the team\u2019s potential, while the challenges of MIAA play tested its consistency and depth. Senior leaders such as midfielder Ava Slater and Ridderman provided stability while sophomores Escobedo and Kreydich alongside junior midfielder Claire Keely gained valuable experience that will be essential moving forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saint Mary\u2019s College women\u2019s soccer team closed out its 2025 season with a 4-0 loss to Hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-252185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}