When defender Samantha Sturno joined the Marist women’s soccer team in 2019, she had a positive outlook and was hopeful for a successful college career.
At that time, the team was in their second season under head coach Leigh Howard and had finished the previous season in 2nd place, earning them a bye into the MAAC conference semifinals. In 2019, the Red Foxes finished 4th in the conference and hosted a first-round playoff matchup, falling 3-2 to Quinnipiac.
Despite the postseason shortcomings, Sturno was confident in the group around her after her first season. A bright mix of upperclassmen leaders and promising underclassmen led by a young coach sought to achieve the ultimate goal: winning a MAAC conference championship.
Four years and three coaches later, as Sturno’s fifth season on the team reaches its conclusion, the one constant throughout her time was change.
“With three coaches, every year has been something different,” said Sturno. “There’s new players [each year], but the style of play [being different each year], I think that it’s hard for people to adjust over and over again.”
Now, Marist women’s soccer is led by head coach Nicole Pacapelli; the program aims to find some stability after a turbulent few years.
In February 2020, Howard, the 2018 MAAC Coach of the Year, left the program after two seasons to begin a stint as head coach at the University of Albany. Howard was replaced by Brittany Kolmel, a vastly experienced player who was the third player in the history of the National Women’s Soccer League to reach 100 caps.
However, Kolmel’s tenure at Marist failed to move the needle with a group that had the potential to challenge for a MAAC title. In two seasons under Kolmel, the Red Foxes earned five wins in each season, finishing 7th in the MAAC in 2021 and 6th in 2022. Both campaigns ended with a first-round exit, prolonging Marist’s winless streak in the playoffs, a streak that dates back to 2016.
For those two years, Marist’s defense was their strong suit. They were led by Sturno, who collected All-MAAC First and Second Team honors under Kolmel, and goalkeeper Natalie Kelchner, the 2021 MAAC Goalkeeper of the Year. The other side of the ball was a different story, with Marist struggling offensively.
Across 32 games with Kolmel in charge, Marist scored 29 goals, equating to 0.91 goals per game, and they were shutout 12 times. While a few athletes had productive seasons, in both 2021 and 2022, Marist did not have one player crack the top 10 in goals or assists for the MAAC, indicating their offense was not up to par. With their defense giving up 1.125 goals per game, Marist could not ascend in the standings.
“My freshman year, we did pretty well, and I thought we were just going to keep building off that, but after COVID and with a new coach, it didn’t happen that way,” said Sturno. “After my freshman year, we never had a great year.”
In December 2022, Kolmel stepped down “due to personal reasons,” meaning that the women’s soccer program would have to begin looking for its third head coach in three years and fifth since 2016.
A month later, Marist Director of Athletics Tim Murray announced Pacapelli would be taking over the program. Another successful college player at the University of New Haven turned coach looking to make an impact at this middling program.
Pacapelli got the news of her next venture while at a prospect clinic with her previous team, Binghamton University.
“I got a call from Mr. Murray offering me the job and I remember the hardest part about it was that I was at this big soccer convention with hundreds of coaches and friends,” said Pacapelli. “[Murray] didn’t want me to tell anybody until we told the team. That was the hardest thing because I knew for three days and couldn’t tell anybody.”
Pacapelli came into the job at Marist with nine seasons of head or assistant coach experience, yet she inherited a roster that had already been through a lot, a reality that was beyond her control. The ups and downs of college life in COVID and disappointing results in recent seasons left behind faulty team morale and uncertainty about what to expect from many of the players. And for 14 of the 30 roster members, this was likely their last collegiate season.
“I think we had a group of girls who have been through the same type of story for a few years and I think once some of the obstacles started to hit, for as much as we would try to keep them up and get them to understand that we’re in it, I felt as though the group just didn’t truly believe that,” said Pacapelli. “There was a little bit of lack of belief that they could do it.”
Pacapelli used the spring semester to get to know the group and build team chemistry by improving the program’s structure and camaraderie.
“I put them in ‘family groups’ right away, and we do competitions with those groups, and I make them have meals together and do fun things,” said Pacapelli.
She also tried to familiarize herself with each of her new players, setting up a questionnaire to learn about them and the program as a whole.
“I wanted to get to know a little bit about the program and its past and maybe what worked, what didn’t work, what went well, what didn’t go well,” said Pacapelli.
Team culture was a focal point as the Red Foxes worked throughout the spring to learn a new system and revitalize their chemistry.
“[The focus was] making sure everyone’s on the same page wanting the best for each other because in the past it was so much clashing of heads and that wasn’t the end goal,” said Sturno.
As the fall 2023 season approached, the team realized they had an opportunity in front of them.
“It was really exciting because it was a fresh start, and the MAAC didn’t know what to expect,” said senior midfielder Amanda Caldarelli. “[The team] had been with coach [Pacapelli] since the spring… we had majority upperclassmen, so the morale was just to get after it.”
Marist had a challenging non-conference schedule to start the season, including three matchups with Big East Conference opponents: Villanova, Seton Hall and UConn. While playing up to big opponents can be a good measuring stick to kick off a season, for Marist, it put them on their heels.
“We had a really tough preseason where we got accustomed to playing very defensive, having all bodies back,” said Caldarelli. “There [weren’t many games] before we entered conference play that everyone would have confidence to drive at a player or have offensive opportunities.”
Scoring struggles defined the Red Foxes’ season, as it had in years past. They scored five goals in 16 games, – 0.3 goals per game – never scored more than one goal in a game and only had four players find the back of the net. Their defense couldn’t make up for their lackluster offense, and Marist finished ninth in the MAAC table, four points away from the final playoff spot.
Despite having trouble scoring, Marist remained in the hunt for a postseason birth until their final match. Timely wins, including a conference-opening victory against Rider, kept them afloat for most of the season. Yet too often, the team did plenty of the things needed to win except putting the ball in the back, costing them points and ultimately dooming their season.
“I think when we found our rhythm, it was really good,” said Sturno. “Whether it was creating opportunities or quick one-two style play, we found good things. It just didn’t last.”
The end of the 2023 season signifies a changing of the guard for Marist women’s soccer. It’s the end of the road for Sturno, Caldarelli, senior midfielder Bridget Dudziec, graduate student forward Brooke Cergol and more, who’ve had a positive impact on the program but couldn’t take it to a championship level.
“When I first entered [Marist], the coach had promised that it was building, and by the time we were done, it would be this strong program, a competitor in the MAAC, so it’s disappointing for the results piece,” said Caldarelli.
“Coming here, it’s not like I thought I’m going to win a national championship; that wasn’t the goal, but I think it’s a hard realization when I looked back; it’s disappointing,” said Sturno.
As the focus shifts to next season, Pacapelli has an opportunity to do what her recent predecessors have yet to do: instill an identity in the team and become a presence at the top of the MAAC conference.
“We’re at a point where it’s a little bit of a fresh start,” said Pacapelli, who’s been training exclusively with the 15 members of the 2023 roster who will be on the team next year.
The 2024 roster will be low on experience; only four underclassmen outfielder players made starts this year – sophomore defender Emily Dovico, sophomore midfielder Jillian Garcia, sophomore midfielder Olivia Lindsay and sophomore forward Anna Maggi – but all four did appear in 12 or more games. Of the four rising seniors, only one was a regular starter. Someone who will be looked upon to take on a leadership role is sophomore goalkeeper Maddy Catalanotti, who earned the starting job this year, posting a 1.76 goals against average across 15 matches.
“We’re going to have [a bunch of] incoming girls and transfers; we need to get as close as possible with these girls and building off this year, find our style of play in the beginning so it becomes easier, and we don’t struggle and [have to] hope this, this and this happens to get into playoffs,” said Catalanotti.
The incoming freshman class consists of 13 new players, highlighted by three forwards. Pacapelli indicated plans to use the transfer portal to address more short-term team needs.
Working with a smaller group since the end of the season, Pacapelli shared that she has been stressing the details, putting systems in place for the players to grow as leaders and athletes, ushering in this next era for the program.
Looking down the road, Pacapelli wants Marist women’s soccer to become a more dynamic team.
“[I want other teams to think] they work super hard, they’re relentless when they press,” said Pacapelli. “I want us to be unpredictable in our attack, be creative, move off the ball, interchange with teammates, be dangerous.”
To get to that goal, Marist has work to do. They will start the 2024 season as a young, inexperienced team looking to turn some heads. Being young is not a disqualifier for success in the MAAC, though. Namely, Siena and Fairfield were led by underclassmen making significant impacts this year.
“I think we are set up to compete with anybody in the MAAC,” said Pacapelli. “If the kids believe that, obviously the staff believes that, and we put in the work, we can compete with anybody.”
Edited by Luke Sassa and Ben Leeds
Graphic by Cara Lacey; Photo from Jaylen Rizzo
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X and TikTok, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.