Highlighted Hens: Fall 2025 Preseason Edition

With the start of our Football Preseason Positional Previews, it is now time to also take a deeper look at the other fall sports that will kick off their seasons in just a few weeks. Delaware Women’s Soccer and Volleyball begin their new journeys as members of Conference USA, while Men’s Soccer and Women’s Ice Hockey represent the school as affiliate members in the Summit League and Atlantic Hockey America. The Field Hockey program was not able to agree to a new conference home, meaning they will be independent this fall. With that being said, let’s dive into the rosters, schedules, and other news surrounding the incoming 2025 fall sports’ seasons.

Women’s Soccer

For the first time since 2019, Delaware Women’s Soccer clinched a spot in the CAA Tournament after a 4-2-4 conference record last season. Now heading into Conference USA, head coach Kelly Lawrence’s side returns eight members who logged over 700 minutes a season ago. The defense will be anchored by Constanze Viehmann for the third straight year, who played 1,400 minutes and received all-conference honors in each of the last two seasons. The Blue Hens also received significant production from their recent freshman class, where midfielder Gabby Riley had the most assists on the team (4) and finished second in minutes played (1,656). Midfielder Brooke Vogel and forward Olivia Bley were both placed on the 2024 CAA All-Rookie Team, each of them registering 3 goal contributions (Vogel 3 goals, Bley 2 goals/1 assist). Additional names to watch next fall are defender Ava Sallee, midfielder Willa Pratt, and forwards Maggie Holloway and Maggie Groh.

The Blue Hens’ 2025 schedule delivers a mix of local rivalries before conference play kicks off. All nine nonconference fixtures encompasses universities within a 250-mile radius from Newark, including three local CAA programs: Towson, Drexel, and William & Mary. Their first conference game takes place on Sunday, September 21st, where the Hens host the defending CUSA champions in Florida International. Last season, Delaware finished 162nd in RPI, which ranked 6th in the CAA. In Conference USA, this ranking would have held as the 5th highest, where all of Liberty, New Mexico State, Missouri State (within MVC), and Florida International finished inside the top 100. While having 12 teams in the conference, the Hens will only play against 8 of them, not facing off with Sam Houston State, Middle Tennessee, or Western Kentucky in their first regular season. The 2025 Conference Tournament will be hosted by Liberty on November 5-9, where the top six programs will advance to a single elimination bracket with hopes of punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

Men’s Soccer

A year after making the CAA Tournament semifinals in 2023, Delaware Men’s Soccer finished 10th in the conference last fall. While losing three-time All-CAA honoree Sam Donnellan for 2025, Marius Stenner returns looking to build off a hardware-filled freshman season. The Danish forward scored 9 times and assisted 5, receiving Rookie of the Year and All-CAA First-Team honors. Returning with Stenner in the attack is junior Mikey Johnson, who finished 2024 with 14 points fueled from a hat trick against Rutgers. The 2023 CAA Rookie of the Year Rich Monath is also back after a 3-goal, 3-assist sophomore season. Defensively the Hens return their most experience, with Jans Schroeder, Luke Chatten, T.J. Hastings, and Sean Smith all on the roster for 2025. Schroeder, who led the team in assists with 6, was selected to the All-CAA Third-Team last season. Hastings (2023 All-CAA Second Team, All-Rookie Team) and Chatten combined for 29 starts a year ago, while Smith hopes to regain his 2023 form after missing all of last season due to injury.

The program’s move to The Summit will add a new challenge ahead for head coach Tommy McMenemy. While Delaware ranked 99th in RPI last season, four programs within their new conference finished inside the top 50: Denver (2), Massachusetts (9), Kansas City (13), and Oral Roberts (50). The first Summit game for the Hens will occur in Newark, hosting the other first-year affiliate UMass, who made the NCAA quarterfinals last fall. Another game worth circling is the Hens’ first conference road game at Denver, the program that beat UMass in the quarterfinals but lost in the semifinals to the eventual champion Vermont in penalty kicks.

Field Hockey

It came to a surprise when the school announced that longtime Field Hockey Head Coach Rolf van de Kerkhof was stepping down after 14 seasons at Delaware. The all-time winningest coach in program history won the school’s first ever national championship in 2016, defeating North Carolina 3-2 in the finals. Announcing his replacement a month later, Delaware landed a home run hire in Tara Zollinger. Every program that Zollinger has been associated with finds immediate success, winning national championships as a player (Maryland 2010, 2011), an assistant coach (Syracuse 2015), and a head coach (Shippensburg 2017, 2018, 2021).

Joining Zollinger’s coaching staff are Ally Mooney, Devin Kinzel, and Sydney Rhodes-James. Mooney served as the defensive coordinator under Zollinger at Shippensburg, where she previously won three straight national championships as their starting goalkeeper in 2016-2018. Kinzel, a recent Temple alum, was a team captain for the Owls in 2024. She was named to the Big East All-Conference Second-Team, and her seven goals were tied for the highest on the team. Rhodes-James was a member of the 2016 National Championship team, where she made 50 appearances in the cage throughout her Blue Hen playing career.

Zollinger not only brought a staff member with her from Shippensburg, but a key attacking piece as well. Senior Alexa Michielsen transferred to Delaware after scoring 9 goals in 2024, the second highest for the Raiders. Michielsen was named the 2024 PSAC Tournament MVP after scoring game-winning overtime goals in each of the semifinals and championship. Another key transfer is Kristi Merashoff, who started all 19 games for Northeastern at goalkeeper last season. The graduate student from Towson, Maryland will replace Cecile van Eijck, who was also a successful graduate transfer from Kent State a year ago. Returning to the mix are defenders Iris Bekker, Lily Cosner, and Cameron Medinger, midfielders Rachael Whitehead, Sarah Rigual, and Kate Fiest, and forward Noelle Sabbagh. All seven Hens logged over 700 minutes last season. Fiest was named to the All-CAA First-Team, while Medinger received Second-Team honors. Bekker and Rigual were named to the conference’s All-Tournament team after the school won its 10th CAA Championship in the last 12 years.

While Delaware had to become an independent program for the 2025 season, their schedule continues to show their commitment to competing at the highest level. The Hens face off against both teams who made last year’s national championship game, hosting the defending champions Northwestern and traveling to the runner-up St. Joe’s. They will also visit Drexel, holding a local rivalry between two strong programs. Additional games to watch are a home matchup against Ohio State and road trips to Wake Forest and Penn State. Throughout the coming weeks and months, we will continue to track if Delaware Field Hockey can land a conference home for 2026.

Volleyball

Delaware Volleyball, whose 74.1%-win rate in 2024 was its sixth best in program history, was one set away from winning back-to-back CAA Championships. The 2025 team sees changes in all of the coaching staff, starting lineup, and conference schedule. Kimberly Lambert hired two new coaches to her staff: Associate Head Coach Lenika Vazquez and Assistant Coach Hunter Ray. Vazquez was the head coach at Northeastern from 2020-2024, making four CAA Tournament appearances. Ray arrives to Newark after assisting one season at Southern Illinois.

The program lost all four members that started in every match last season: Gha’Naye Whitfield-Moss to Mississippi State and Lily Rogers (CAA Setter of the Year, First-Team All-CAA), Kirah Johnson (First-Team All-CAA), and Savannah Seemans to graduation. The Hens do return a former All-Conference selectee in junior outside hitter Anna Logan Gillens, who received Second-Team all-conference honors after finishing seventh in the CAA in kills per set (3.23). Other members that played in all 27 matches and will be back in The Bob this fall are senior libero Cadence Nguyen, sophomore Taylor Holly, and graduate student Raina Hughes.

After a few early-season nonconference tournaments, the Blue Hens will open their inaugural Conference USA schedule hosting New Mexico State on September 26-27. Delaware will travel to Western Kentucky on November 7-8, which will be a true late-season test as the Hilltoppers have won nine of eleven CUSA Tournaments since joining the league in 2014. Florida International will host this season’s postseason tournament, which will be a single elimination bracket featuring the top eight seeds starting on November 21st.

Ice Hockey

There are not many opportunities for a head coach to build a program from scratch, but Delaware’s Allison Coomey has received just that. A day after the school’s statement of joining Conference USA, Delaware announced the addition of women’s ice hockey as a varsity sport, becoming the seventh member of Atlantic Hockey America. A few months later, Coomey was hired as the program’s inaugural head coach. The long-time Penn State assistant hired assistants Melissa Samoskevich and Taylor Willard to the staff.

The program signed 22 members to their first roster in program history. From the list, including 17 freshmen, the future Hens arrive from 3 countries, 3 Canadian provinces, and 11 US states. While a heavy majority of the roster will be first-time collegiate athletes, the staff landed multiple transfers with winning NCAA experience. Senior defender Tiana McIntyre made 76 appearances in 3 seasons for Quinnipiac, a program that finished ranked 10th nationally last year (USCHO). Junior goalie Mattie Robitzer made three appearances for Northeastern in 2024-25, averaging 16 saves and under 2 goals allowed per game. Graduate forward Kaitlin Finnegan recorded 23 points (7 goals, 16 assists) in 109 games throughout her 4-year Lindenwood career. Junior forward Danica Mark had 3 points (1 goal, 2 assists) in 9 games at Union last season.

The Blue Hens will face off in Fred Rust Arena for the first five weeks of their season, beginning with hosting Long Island in a two-game series on September 26-27. Throughout the regular season, Delaware will play a home-and-home two-game series against each AHA member: Penn State, Syracuse, Mercyhurst, Robert Morris, RIT, and Lindenwood. Along with Long Island, the Hens will play Holy Cross, Brown, and Union in their nonconference slate. Each team within the AHA qualifies for the playoffs, which will start on February 19th. This historic ice hockey season will be one to watch this academic calendar.

I hope you enjoyed this detailed preview as we inch closer to the fall sports season. Once the games start rolling, we will continue our “Highlighted Hens” series periodically throughout the weeks ahead. To plan out your trips to Newark in the coming months, you can view a detailed athletics events calendar on our home page here.