These St. Joe’s women’s soccer players are back for their fifth and final year together as ‘a little family’

When Sam Dumont, Rachel Brown, Katie Cappelletti, Natalie Nevins, Chloe Khelil, and Maddie Anderson arrived on the St. Joseph’s campus in the fall of 2020, the only certainty about the upcoming year was that they were going to be spending a lot of time together.

The six newcomers to the St. Joe’s women’s soccer team didn’t get a fall season that year, but they still spent nearly every minute of their first year together because of the restrictions placed by the school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was an everyday thing. We woke up. We ate breakfast. We went to classes together. We went to practice, came home, and it was kind of a rinse and repeat thing,” Khelil said. “Obviously, it was not the easiest time for all of us. Because of COVID, we couldn’t do a lot, but I think it brought us close. We only had each other to lean on, and that helped us build a strong bond.”

And now after four years together, the six Hawks have used their fifth year of eligibility and are playing together for one last season. They’re currently 4-2-3 (0-0-1 Atlantic 10) and will host Virginia Commonwealth on Thursday (7 p.m., ESPN+).

“It’s not often that you get to spend five years in a program you really love with people you really love,” Nevins said. “We got to grow up together in a way, and going through COVID together really did push us to a whole different level of friendship.”

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Nevins also added that at 22 and 23 years old, five years is a long time to have been in each other’s lives.

“We’ve seen the highs and lows of each other for the past five years,” Nevins said. “I feel like we’ve grown to become a little unit, a little family, and I think all of us wanted one last time to do this together.”

Between the six of them, the group has played a combined 319 games and over 22,000 minutes. With Cappelletti in net, Khelil and Anderson as defenders, two forwards in Dumont and Brown, and Nevins playing midfield, the Hawks believe that having six players with the experience this group has is a strong advantage in the Atlantic 10 and beyond.

“The coaches turn to the six of us a lot for just different things, both on and off the field,” Nevins said. “We all offer different perspectives and different strengths we have. We cover all of our bases very well. We all bring different things to the table, in leadership, in soccer, in school, in life.”

The group also has helped build the Hawks’ culture, a culture that made them want to stay for another year.

“We stepped into a program that didn’t really have an established culture. Sophomore year, we actually hired a culture coach to come in and walk our team through, all the steps toward building a culture,” Brown said. “This season, in particular, we’re starting to see it pay off. I think that was one of the leading factors into why a lot of us stayed, like, to see all of our hard work come to fruition and determine the legacy that we left as a class.”

Anderson added: “We created such a strong bond with not only ourselves, but with our team, and that wasn’t necessarily something we had our freshman year, so I think we just really weren’t ready to leave here yet and not have those connections with everyone.”

Cappelletti said the culture they’ve helped to foster relies on the fundamentals of “P.U.S.H.”: purpose, unity, strive, and hard.

“That’s kind of how we navigate and get through hard times off the field, or hard time on the field when, maybe we’re not having success or not winning,” Cappelletti said. “The six of us knowing what that took and how much we put into it is what keeps us going and drives us to have success.”

With only two seniors on the team, Lauren Hatt and Dani Stuart, Dumont said the fifth-years are trying to pass on their experience to their younger teammates.

“We want to leave a legacy here,” Dumont said. “Imparting any words of wisdom, because when we’re gone, we want it to stay this amazing program where everyone feels included and welcomed and safe.”

While how their legacy will fare in five years from now is to be determined, the six Hawks have made their mark on the program in the past five years, but more personally, have made their mark on each other.

“I feel so blessed that we got another year together, and I wouldn’t trade our experience, even if it was so hard and so challenging initially for the world,” Nevins said, turning to her teammates. “Going through the things we went through together has made me a better person, and it’s made me grow in so many ways I didn’t think I could grow. I wouldn’t be who I am without these five girls. So I really do love them with all my heart.”