The Hartford Hawks Women's Soccer team have made the NCAA Division 3 Women's Soccer tournament.
This is the first time since 2006 that the Hawks have made the tournament. The last time the Hawks made the tournament they went 8-2 at Al-Marzook field while going 2-6-2 on the road. During that run the Hawks would host the American East conference tournament and would win with a 2-1 win over the University of New Hampshire in the semi-final and a 1-0 win over the University of Maine in the America East final. The Hawks would then travel to Piscataway New Jersey to take Rutgers University where their hopes at an NCAA title would end as they would lose 2-0.
Time has changed and so have the Hawks. Hartford won the Conference of New England last year following a 2-0 win over Endicott College and a 6-0 win over Gordon College. Despite the Hawks winning the conference they were ineligible to make the NCAA tournament due to the transition. The Hawks however were eligible to compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournament, Hartford would host the tournament and have Penn State-Greensburg, New Jersey City University (NJCU), and Springfield College. Hartford would win 5-0 over NJCU with both Imani Jenkins and Christina Stone scoring twice. Then Hartford would then play Springfield College in the ECAC final where Hartford would again win with a 6-0 final score with six different Hawks scoring.
Then the 2025 season came and Hartford came out hungry looking for more success. Hartford saw Rebecca Opdenbrouw take a step forward in her career setting a new career high in goals with 14 and earning CNE Offensive Player of the Year. While freshman and CNE rookie of the year Anastasia Nerney also stepping up for the Hawks putting up 11 goals and 9 assists to start her collegiate career. To go along with success on the field Hartford goalkeeper Sejal Johnson has been on fire, securing 3 straight shutout wins for the Hawks, to go along with 16 goals allowed on the season while making 78 saves. The last time out for Hartford captain Kathleen Brush was involved in both of the Hartford goals, scoring the first of two goals just eight minutes into the game. For the second Hartford goal Brush was fouled in the box and Reese Sadler drove the ball into the back of the net past Gulls goalkeeper Samantha MacCormack. Hartford would go on to win the match 2-0.
Now the Hawks have a new challenger standing in their way for a NCAA title. It starts with the University of Rochester Yellow Jackets, who made the NCAA tournament on an at large bid. The strength of the Yellow Jacket schedule was enough to get them into the NCAA tournament despite finishing the regular season with a record of 8-3-6. During the season the Yellow Jackets scored 18 times with sophomores Hannah Nagashima and Natalie Santangelo both scoring 3 goals while recording 4 assists while first year Delia McMullen also scored 3 goals.
The Hawks take on the University of Rochester Yellow Jackets on Saturday at 1:30pm.