2025 YSCC Women’s Soccer Final Four Recap

Auburn, ME – The #3 seeded Southern Maine Community College Seawolves captured the 2025 Yankee Small College Conference Women's Soccer Tournament championship on Sunday, after a 2-0 win over the New Hampshire Technical Institute Lynx. The championship match, hosted at Central Maine Community College wrapped up a fantastic women's soccer season.

Semifinal – #3 SMCC 4 @ #1 ACPHS 0

The Seawolves got the weekend started on Saturday with the first of two semifinals in Auburn, defeating the #1 seed out of the YSCC West Division, the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Panthers.

The game was played under difficult conditions with heavy wind gusts giving the team defending the goal at the right side of the field a disadvantage. The Seawolves made use of that to score their first goal. An ACPHS goal kick into the wind fell short to midfielder Isabella Tanis. The SMCC captain fired a left-footed shot that just eluded Kiah Klauss for a 1-0 lead in the 26^th minute.

Southern Maine made it 2-0 just three minutes later when Jocelyn Civiello got free in on goal. Klauss did well to save the one-on-one chance, but the rebound fell to Addie Fiandaca who swept into the back of the net.

Civiello did get on the scoresheet in the second half. Annabelle Fournier whipped a shot on net from the top of the box in the 61^st minute. Klauss did well to make a diving save, but Civiello reacted quickest in the area to slam in the rebound.

The Seawolves wrapped up the 4-0 win with their final goal in the 74^th minute. Jaidyn Eastman fed a through ball to Civiello who quickly squared it to Tanis. The junior from Bangor, ME bagged her second of the day to send SMCC through to the championship game.

Southern Maine had a 21-9 advantage in shots including putting 13 on target. Klauss finished with nine saves for Albany while Aubrey Gilbert had six saves to earn the shutout. ACPHS forward Ka'ena Kehano led her team with six shots, putting three on target. The All-Conference selection came closest to finding the back of the net for the Panthers when she hit the post early in the second half.

Semifinal – #3 WOLBI 0 @ #1 NHTI 3

The second semifinal of the day saw the #1 seed out of the East Division, the undefeated NHTI Lynx, knock off the #3 seed from the West, the Word of Life Bible Institute Huskies. NHTI scored twice in the opening ten minutes before holding off the Huskies' comeback attempt in the second half.

Piper Flood got on the scoresheet first, with a nice attack leading to a goal in the fourth minute. All-Conference Honorable Mention defender Alyviah Blad made a run down the left sideline, sending a low cross into the box for Flood. The forward rounded goalkeeper Ryleigh Gangarossa before poking her shot into the back of the net.

Eva LaValley made it 2-0 just a tick more than seven minutes in. Flood's corner kick from the far side bounced untouched into the area. LaValley got her right foot to it, prodding a point-blank shot past Gangarossa.

With the wind at their backs, NHTI produced a 19-0 advantage in shots over the first 45 minutes, but the Huskies defense dug in after the slow start. It took until the 35^th minute for the Lynx to find their third goal. A bouncing ball at the top of the box was picked up by LaValley, and she sailed her shot over the goalkeeper's hands and just under the crossbar for her second of the game.

After swapped ends in the second half, Word of Life looked to pull a goal back against the Lynx defense. All-Conference midfielder Ellie Rishel let fly a long-distance free kick from the halfway line that rode the breeze and forced a save from Hailey Knight to keep it out of the top corner.

That would prove to be the WOLBI's best scoring chance, as NHTI held on for the victory to earn their shot at back-to-back titles in Sunday's championship game. Gangarossa made nine saves to keep her side in it while Knight, the YSCC Goalkeeper of the Year, had fives saves to pick up her 10^th shutout of the campaign.

Championship – #3 SMCC 2 @ #1 NHTI 0

Sunday's final was a match worthy of deciding the conference champion. The Seawolves completed their underdog run of defeating CMCC the #2 seed in the East, ACPHS the #1 seed in the West, and NHTI the undefeated #1 seed in the East.

NHTI came out swinging, looking for an early goal just like in Saturday's semifinal, to set the tone. The Lynx had five shots in the first ten minutes, drawing three saves from Gilbert, the Seawolves' goalkeeper. LaValley had a sharp angle effort stopped and Darci Stone had two chances from the left side of the box in a span of 15 seconds.

However, it was SMCC that struck first with their first real attack of the match. Eastman curled a long pass behind the NHTI defense for Civiello to chase down. Lynx goalkeeper Knight had been very successful coming off her line to deal with similar passes, but was burned this time. Civiello was able to duck around the shielding defender Kylie Prusia, nudging the ball to the right just before Knight could claim it. The pass found Tanis at the top of the box who rolled her shot into the unguarded net for a 1-0 lead in the 14^th minute.

The goal against the run of play seemed to stun the Lynx, and the Seawolves scored again just more than three minutes later on their next foray into the NHTI half. Amya Braley lined up a free kick from 35 yards out. The sophomore center back smacked a hard shot that appeared destined for the top corner. Knight intervened with a great save to tip the ball onto the cross bar, but no Lynx defender followed the shot, leaving an unmarked Civiello free in the area to fire in the rebound.

That left NHTI trailing for the first time all year having previously allowed only two goals in their first 13 games of the season. They had two good chance to pull a goal back before halftime. LaValley got free one-on-one against the keeper, but Gilbert made a fantastic left foot kick save to deny her in the 27^th minute. Her left foot came to the rescue again four minutes later, keeping out a shot by Blad to maintain the two-goal lead into halftime.

The second half was a feisty one with SMCC looking to keep the NHTI offense at bay for the remaining 45 minutes. The Lynx brought on leading scorer and YSCC Player of the Year Adrienne Dorr in the 54^th minute. The senior from Pembroke, NH was not at 100% and could not provide a spark in her ten-minute cameo.

The Lynx held a 9-3 advantage in shots in the second half, but the Seawolves defense was well-drilled, keeping chances against them to a minimum. Both teams committed eight fouls in the second half as the game turned physical, with Rylie Wright and Tiana Salazar receiving yellow cards for Southern Maine and Tyler Harrington going into the referee's book for New Hampshire.

When the clock hit zero it was SMCC who had pulled off another playoff upset to claim their third YSCC Tournament championship in program history, and second under head coach Ethan Wells.

2025 YSCC Women's Soccer Tournament Awards

• Most Outstanding Defensive Player – Aubrey Gilbert (SMCC)
• Most Outstanding Offensive Player – Eva LaValley (NHTI)
• YSCC Tournament MVP – Addie Fiandaca (SMCC)

The Seawolves earn the conference's automatic bid to the USCAA National Championship tournament in Pittsburgh, PA from November 13-17^th.