The 2025 women’s soccer season kicks off its regular season this week, and with it, the Huskies will look to settle into a slew of off-season changes and improve on a disappointing 2024 campaign.
“This is our redemption season,” said captain Maggie Cochran. “We want to have a championship season. And I think this summer and these past two weeks of preseason, everyone’s [mindset] has been, ‘we’re winning’”
After finishing with a 2-9-7 record in the 2024 season, Northeastern said goodbye to a 12-member senior class, including three of its top four scorers. Most notably, top scorer Jessie Hunt (4g, 4a), a three-year Husky and Wisconsin transfer, signed a professional contract with Sporting Club Jacksonville, leaving behind a decorated Northeastern career marked by the all-time program assists record (27) and single-season assists record (13 in 2022). For a team that was struggling to get net-front chances all year long, hers and other departures will certainly bring challenges, but it’s also an opportunity for the team’s new additions and rising returners to make a name for themselves on the field.
“We’ve implemented a little bit of adjustments in our style because they’ve come in a little bit more physically prepared and I think they’re a gritty, hungry, feisty group, which we’re super excited about,” Phillips said. “They’re willing to just do the hard things sometimes, to get results, and, that’s been kind of the message: if we keep doing that, success is going to come.”
Two Husky returners with a chance at greatness this season are Cochran and sophomore Lughano Nyondo.
For Cochran, the top returning scorer this season, this will mark her fourth year in the red and black. She’s contributed five goals and five assists so far through her time at Northeastern, including one goal and a career-high four assists last season.
Right behind Cochran, Nyondo may be just a sophomore, but in her rookie campaign, she posted one goal and two assists, and is expected to shine this season.
“I think it took her a year to adjust to some of the physical aspects of the game, but she came back super prepared this year and we’re excited to get her out there more because I think she can just add a tremendous spark to our attacking front,” said head coach Ashley Phillips.
But the bulk of the opportunity for striking power will lie with the newcomers. During the offseason, Phillips sought out experienced players who could fill those roles, and got what she was looking for with two skilled transfers and a club-soccer-star walk-on. Sophomore Claire Murray tallied a goal and an assist as a freshman at the University of Illinois, and graduate student Bridget Gleason earned a total of eight goals and five assists during her three years at Bentley University. The pair are anticipated to contribute some veteran knowledge to what’s otherwise a very young team, as well as one surprise find in senior Tamara Muñoz, who was given a career opportunity when she got the call-up just a couple months ago. The four-year Husky and former Northeastern club soccer player trained with the varsity squad two years ago, so she was already on the staff’s radar when room opened up on the D-I bench this offseason. Although she’s settling into a new stage, Muñoz’s skills have already shined in the preseason, and she’s primed for a successful year with the Huskies.
“I think it’s a remarkable story,” Phillips said. “As coaches, we don’t always get the opportunity to give someone this kind of chance, and then two, to see a young person really take advantage of that chance is pretty awesome.
Meanwhile, the true rookies will help out a bit more on the back end. The team’s freshman class is comprised of a goalie, four defenders, and two midfielders to help protect a rather veteran net. 2024 goalies Sophie Theresia Augustin and captain Eliza Teplow will likely continue to switch off between the posts, but rookie Lucy Krumwiede could give them a run for their money. The freshman has been one to watch through her high school and club career, tabbed by Top Drawer Soccer as a top goaltending prospect for years.
Regardless of who’s in net, the new defenders will have a big task to adapt to Northeastern’s style and work on converting defensive possessions into offensive opportunities.
“I think we’ll continue to find goals through our defensive efforts, and we’ve talked about that, like the higher you win the ball, the closer you are to the goal,” Phillips said. “I think last year we definitely created a lot, and I think we struggled with efficiency and over time that wears on confidence, right? And so it becomes this kind of spiral.”
In order to help with both the mental and physical challenges the game brings, Northeastern has made some changes behind the bench, as Phillips welcomes two new faces to her staff. Assistant coach Abby Carchio, a former Brown University soccer captain and Roger Williams University interim head coach, joined Northeastern back in the spring. Although she was able to gain some face time with the team during the spring slate, this will be her first full season with the Huskies. In much more recent news, former Holy Cross head coach and UMass Amherst assistant coach Ricky Newton entered the scene during the first week of August as associate head coach, while the Huskies were already deep in preseason training. Outside of college soccer, Newton has spent five years with the FC Stars, a top youth soccer program based in Massachusetts, and will bring plenty of insight to a young Northeastern squad with a highly local out-of-conference schedule.
“I think just some fresh life to the program, some new ideas, some new perspectives, has been super awesome,” Phillips said. “And Ricky and Abby and I, I think we really balance each other out super well, so it’s been awesome, really fun, and I’m really lucky to have two very qualified people join our program.”
Although the Huskies have yet to enter their 17-game slate, they already have a pair of exhibition matches under their belts, giving themselves and fans a taste of what’s to come. During the preseason, the Huskies faced UMass Lowell and UMaine just two days apart. While the 0-3 loss against Lowell wasn’t exactly what the Huskies were hoping for, they quickly rallied as a team to tie Maine 1-1.
“I think the exhibition games were really great tests for us,” Cochran said. “The first exhibition game against UMass Lowell was definitely a learning curve, where we’ve done a lot of prep work the past two weeks on working on our high press and just working on our formation. [Then,] we played UMaine, and it was like a crazy growth from us… We started off the [first] half a little slow, but during the second half, we got right into it and did all the things that we were trying to check our boxes pre-game and the practice before.”
The true test will come for the Huskies when the regular season gets underway, particularly with new scheduling from the CAA. During the offseason, the conference adopted divisional formatting, partitioning the group into North and South, with the top three from each division making it to the playoffs. With the northern half of the conference being much more successful in recent years, it’ll be a tough hill to climb for the Huskies.
“It doesn’t necessarily change the way we approach it; it just makes it probably a little more challenging, because our division’s so strong, which is a challenge that’s good for the league. It’ll be good for us,” Phillips said.
The Huskies will start the season out-of-conference with four home games and four away games before beginning their CAA schedule against UNCW September 18. It all kicks off Thursday evening when the Huskies host crosstown rival Boston University at 6 p.m.
“It’s going to be a super big test to play against a veteran team that’s your crosstown rivalry, and we have quite a handful of newcomers jumping into the lineup,” Phillips said. “It’s gonna be awesome. but I think we feel like the group can really utilize some of our qualities and our pressing moments to then create a lot of offensive chances.”
Amelia Ballingall is the Editor-in-Chief for WRBB Sports. She has been a writer and broadcaster with the organization since 2022. Read more of her work here.