Wagner’s Perfect NEC Run Rolls On as the Seahawks Shut Out Rider to Reach the Final
Wagner don’t lose NEC games anymore. The top-seeded Seahawks made it nine straight in the league with a 2-0 semifinal win over Rider on Thursday, and now they’re one win from the first NEC title in program history.
It was done early, really. Julia de Leeuw put Wagner ahead in the ninth minute, finishing off a Floortje Leunisse assist, and Leunisse got one herself just before half-time, Victoria Gonzalez-Lopez with the pass. Rider, the fourth seed, never found a way back in. The Seahawks saw it out in front of 358 fans at the Wagner Field Hockey Complex, and the clean sheet was the fitting end to a regular season in which they went 8-0 in the league, the first undefeated conference run the program has ever put together.
That 8-0 mark earned Wagner their second outright NEC regular-season title, their first since 2024, and their third regular-season crown in just eight seasons as a program. They’ve been building toward this for a while. Last year they reached the final and lost to Fairfield. This year they host the whole thing, and the final is on their own turf on Saturday at noon.
Rider’s season ends at 5-13. The Broncs had their moments this year, and they beat the Seahawks’ rhythm for long stretches on Thursday. But Wagner won the regular-season meeting 2-1 too, and the gap between the sides showed in the end.
Saturday’s final is against the winner of Thursday’s second semifinal between second-seeded Quinnipiac and third-seeded Sacred Heart. The Pioneers come in off a 15-0 program-record win over Mercyhurst to close the regular season, so whoever it is, Wagner will have to earn it. Still, for our money, the team that hasn’t lost a league game all year, at home, with a title on the line, is a tough one to pick against.
