Wagner’s Fab Four Sweep the NEC Awards as the Seahawks’ Dream Season Rolls On

Wagner’s season keeps finding new ways to make history, and the Northeast Conference awards are the latest chapter.

The NEC announced its 2026 field hockey honours last week, and the Seahawks took four of the seven major awards after going 8-0 in league play, the first undefeated conference season in program history. The top three teams in the standings swept the lot between them, but Wagner led the way by a distance.

Senior forward Floortje Leunisse shared Offensive Player of the Year with Quinnipiac’s Ava Bleier. Leunisse has rewritten Wagner’s record book this season, scoring 12 goals and 28 points to tie for the league lead in goals, and she did it in style, with three hat tricks including one in an 8-0 win over New Haven. She was a second-team pick last year. This year she’s a first-teamer and a co-player of the year. Only one other Seahawk has ever won the award, Jules Cruces Pastorino in 2022.

Sophomore defender Julia de Leeuw was named Defensive Player of the Year, the first Wagner player ever to take it. She anchored a back line that kept a league-best six shutouts, and she scored goals too. Senior goalkeeper Mia DiGenova was named Goalkeeper of the Year in her debut season on Grymes Hill, and head coach Aubrey Mytych and her staff, assistants Rayne Wright and Katerina Tsioles, were named Coaching Staff of the Year. Mytych, in her third season, is the first coach in the program’s eight-year history to win it.

Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart share the rest

Quinnipiac, the NEC newcomers, took two of the major awards. Bleier shared the offensive honour with Leunisse, and first-year goalkeeper Meike van Schoot was named Rookie of the Year. Van Schoot was a three-time NEC Defensive Player of the Week and a three-time Rookie of the Week, kept two shutouts, and is only the second Bobcat ever to win the award, after Jenna Grossman in 2006.

Sacred Heart’s Celia Benson, a junior midfielder, was named Midfielder of the Year. Quinnipiac led all schools with seven All-NEC selections, Wagner had five and Sacred Heart three, with LIU and Stonehill taking two each.

Wagner’s other first-team picks were senior midfielder Victoria Gonzalez-Lopez, alongside Leunisse and de Leeuw, and freshman midfielder Gabrielle Childs made the Second Team after starting 15 of 16 games in her first season.

And then they went and won the whole thing

The awards were announced before Wagner had even played their biggest games, and they’ve only got better since. The Seahawks beat Rider 2-0 in the NEC semi-final, then beat Sacred Heart 3-2 in overtime in the final on 7 November, captain Victoria Bruno scoring the winner just over three minutes into extra time. It was the program’s first NEC title in its eight seasons, and de Leeuw was named tournament MVP.

Then on Wednesday they won their first-ever NCAA tournament game, beating Fairfield 1-0 in the opening round. Next up is the biggest test of all: No. 2 Maryland, at noon ET on Friday, 10pm PKT, in College Park.

For our money, Wagner have already had the season of their lives, whatever happens on Friday. But a team that has won four major awards, a first conference title and a first NCAA game in the space of eight days doesn’t look like it’s ready to stop.