On Nov. 19, the girls’ soccer team wrapped up their impressive season after falling short to Livingston in the Group 4 State Semifinal, 0-1. Westfield finished the season 18-1, led by head coach Alex Schmidt and a trio of senior captains: Callie Schmidt, Ashley Yenawine and Olivia DiGregorio. Despite Westfield not reaching the end goal they had imagined, they still had a successful season with the number of setbacks they had.
Schmidt said, “Before the season even began, we lost four players to major injuries. Three juniors: Molly McDermott, Georgia Morrelli and Ava Jasina, and senior captain Callie Schmidt. Each of them brought not only talent but also invaluable experience and leadership.” Callie, in particular, was coming off a standout junior year that included Second Team All-State and Regional All-American honors, and replacing a player of her caliber is nearly impossible, according to Schmidt.
Yenawine said, “We overcame a lot of setbacks with injury, illness and just the strength of our schedule. We always found a way, and it didn’t matter if the odds were being stacked against us; we still managed to get results a lot of the time.”
In the team’s 18 wins, 14 of them came as a shutout. Leading the way for the Blue Devils was Duquesne commit and junior Emilie Cadigan who racked up 13 goals and 5 assists. However, others also contributed to the success, such as Yenawine, an Air Force commit, and DiGregorio, a Scranton commit. Excluding Cadigan, the four girls racked up more than five goals and five assists.
The Blue Devils opened their season on Sept. 4 at Governor Livingston, earning a 2-1 win in their first game of the year. The girls would eventually become highly familiar with a “W” next to their record, as the girls held a perfect record throughout September and October, even without the help of Manhattan commit, Morrelli, Colby commit, Schmidt, Catherine Oliveira and Gabriella Hollins, who were representing their countries in their national soccer teams at times during the season. Nevertheless, game one of the year gave the girls a true test.
“Our very first game of the season set the tone for everything that followed,” Alex Schmidt said. “We opened on the road against a conference opponent on the first day of school and found ourselves down 0-1 with about 12 minutes left. It would’ve been easy for the team to fold and chalk it up to early-season rust, but instead, they regrouped, fought back and scored two goals in the final minutes to earn a 2–1 comeback win. That game revealed the grit and resilience that would come to define this group.”
Even though the girls knocked off Princeton on Oct. 4 by a score of 4-0, it was one of the first times Westfield felt a little more pressure than usual. The game meant more.
Senior goalie Sofia Buoscio said, “Going into [the Princeton] game, we definitely didn’t know what the result was going to be, despite training really hard. We knew that Princeton was a really good team. They had a girl committed to Rutgers who was their goalie. We were scared going into the game, but overall, we were definitely very happy when we won.”
Yenawine agreed on recalling Princeton as the turning point in the season. She said, “There was always a little bit of a disconnect [on the field] in our play up until Princeton. When we played Princeton, we finally clicked.”
The girls followed with wins against Summit, Oak Knoll and Union, outscoring the three teams 7-1. Capping off their successful conference play, Westfield knocked off Cranford 2-0 in the Union County Tournament Final. Rather than playing hero ball, the girls started playing for one another. Yenawine said, “I think we definitely learned to lean on each other a little more on the field, and we all kind of fell into our roles. We didn’t try to do more than what was being asked of us individually, and that helped us as a team collectively.”
The girls carried the same intention they took to the finals in the first round of the Group 4 state tournament when they mercied Plainfield, a standard they would try to live up to for the rest of the playoffs. However, it just wasn’t enough in the end, as Livingston defied all odds and knocked the Blue Devils out. Nevertheless, Schmidt will not forget the senior class and all the great things they accomplished.
He said, “We miss our seniors every year, and this group is no exception. They handled the pressure and expectations that come with being part of this program remarkably well. A team is always a reflection of its senior class, and this year’s seniors competed with grit, heart and determination in every single game.”
The girls have nothing to be ashamed of. The class of 2026 accumulated a record 69-4-4 throughout the years, a record that most teams in the state can never say they have experienced. The 2025 season was truly symbolic of dominance. For a town that reloads every year, the girls lived up to the state’s expectations of them. According to maxpreps.com, the girls finished as the 49th-best team nationally and 11th in New Jersey.
Looking ahead, Westfield will reload once again. As for continuing success into yet another season, Cadigan said, “I think future goals for next year are to continue to build that team chemistry on and off the field, going into the season, the preseason and through captain’s practices. When the season is here, we’re ready. It’s going to hurt losing seniors, but we will be able to still build and play the same way that we want to.”
