Article by Peyton Doyle
Photo by Mike Puzzanghera
Following a season in which four members of the freshman class played significant minutes for the Northeastern Women’s Soccer team, Head Coach Ashley Phillips can only hope to receive similar production from this year’s incoming class. The impressive young core of Huskies, includes the defensive juggernaut, Allie Vazquez and the lightning fast winger Gabby Scarlett. There were not many holes to fill on the roster left by graduating players. The one potential point of improvement could be at starting forward where the electric Chelsea Domond has left but Scarlett has shown plenty of promise.
Several of the incoming freshmen have shown plenty of potential in high school as attacking players. Forward Avery Levangie netted 72 goals and added 53 assists over her four year career at East Bridgewater High School. Levangie was also selected to the MIAA all state team four times and was an Eastern Massachusetts all-star every year of her career. The 5’9 forward will bring plenty of danger and should pair nicely with sophomore attackers Rose Kaefer and Scarlett to form a dynamic group of scorers and playmakers.
Phillips also may have found some great additions to the midfield off the bench with Kaydee Yallo and Natalie Olsen. Yallo tallied 41 goals and 31 assists over her four years at Lyndhurst High School in New Jersey and also earned herself the 2019 NJIC player of the year award as well as four first team all league selections. The other midfielder of the class is Olsen who set the school record for career goals at the Holy Spirit Preparatory school in Atlanta, and also earned herself two all state honors.
Phillips has a tendency to find most of her players within Massachusetts, again showing this with three of her five additions coming from within Northeastern’s state. The two incoming defenders from this recruiting class hail from Massachusetts. Katherine Marchessault was a three sport athlete at The Brooks School in North Andover, earning an all-star nod for the Independent School League in 2019. Marchessault also gained quite the accolades while playing for the New England Football Club, making it to the national championship game twice and winning it in 2019. The other defender is Megan Putvinski, who was selected to the Eastern Massachusetts all-state first team during her last two years at Holliston High School and won an MIAA D. II state championship. While there may not be many minutes up for grabs in the upcoming season in the defensive half of the field, Phillips tends to find spots for talented players, even if it’s not their natural position.
While it may be difficult for this incoming class to follow up the incredible start the last class had, the freshmen may not need to. With the majority of last season’s squad returning, the freshmen will simply be asked to add some scoring support to the forward group that will be missing its top scorer, Domond, from the past two seasons and will be looking to retool its identity.