The Long Beach girls soccer team will be extra tested in the 2026 regular season.
Coming off a 7-5-3 2025 campaign in which the Marines fell to MacArthur in the Class AA quarterfinals, Long Beach moved up to Conference I this season and will tackle some of the top AAA and AA schools on the road to the playoff. Long Beach is guaranteed a playoff spot in its new higher league and will look to use the stepped up competition as solid pay aration for a possible deep postseason run.
“We will be competing with some very good teams which will give us great experience,” coach Ashley Gervasi said. “We usually don’t get to see these kinds of teams until the postseason so it’s exciting for us to get challenged throughout the season this year.”
The Marines were tested from the get go against the larger schools with a narrow 2-1 defeat against last year’s Class AAA runner-up Massapequa on Sept. 1 followed two days later by a 2-0 defeat to Oceanside, the defending Long Island champions.
Junior striker Kaitlin Kelly brings experience to the offense as the team’s leading goal scorer the past three years. Kelly tallied a goal in Long Beach’s 2-1 first round playoff win against Roslyn last year and registered an assist against Massapequa to kick off this season.
Playing up top with Kelly this fall will be junior forward Maeve Lind, who played more of a defensive role last season. Lind scored off a pass from Kelly in the Massapequa defeat.
The midfield unit is anchored by veteran senior captain Jaymes Lind, a varsity player since eighth grade and has committed to play on the collegiate level at Loyola University in Baltimore.
“She’s our leader of our team on the field and off the field,” Gervasi said of Lind. “She’s a huge threat defensively, with 50-50 balls, offensively and set pieces so she’s a great all-around player who we look to in the big time moments.”
The backline is led by returners junior Simaiyah Wardana at center back and senior Natalie Claros at left back. The duo was part of a defense last year that posted three clean sheets and held opponents to a goal or less in nine matches.
Senior goalkeeper Maia Ross also brings experience to the defense after earning some time in net as a backup last fall. Rossi recorded 10 saves in the Massapequa match and had seven stops against Oceanside.
“She’s been stepping up and performing really well,” Gervasi said of the starting netmidner. “She’s been showing up and performing against tough competition.”
Long Beach will square off against defeidning Class AA champions South Side Wednesday evening before hosting Bethpage Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Gervasi said she hopes playing stiff competition will pay dividends in late October where Long Beach will look to get to the semifinal stage for the first time since 2022.
We’re been at this stalemate of the quarterfinals the past couple years,” she said. “Our goal is to get over that hump.”