*INFORMATION COURTESY SHIPPENSBURG SPORTS INFORMATION
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME RECAP
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – Kelly Naudé (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa/Epworth School (Coker)) scored a golden goal 2:11 into overtime Sunday to propel the Shippensburg University field hockey team to its sixth NCAA Division II Championship in school history, as the Raiders defeated Newberry by a 3-2 score in a heart-stopping finale at Steph Pettit Stadium.
Shippensburg (20-3) and Newberry (20-1), tied for second with each other in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) Division II poll, met for just the second time ever on Sunday and the first time in the postseason. The matchup was truly befitting of a national championship game, as the two sides exchanged goals four times and produced a groundswell of drama and emotion in a 62-minute span.
The Raiders were the team to beat after the opening 15 minutes, having established a 1-0 lead and holding the nation’s top offense (5.1 goals per game) without a shot on goal or a penalty corner. Agus Garibaldi (Recoleta, Argentina/Colegio San Agustin) maneuvered a shot five hole on Wolves keeper Ayanda Mangenah at the 9:28 mark to open the scoring.
The Raiders recorded five of their nine penalty corners in the second quarter but could not add to their lead, with Mangenah making a pair of saves. SU maintained its 1-0 lead into halftime but not before Newberry began to chip away. The Wolves erupted in the final 2:30 by recording their first shot on goal, hitting the post with another, earning their first penalty corner and sending another shot just wide.
Newberry provided evidence it was ready for the third quarter when its lineup came back onto the field with three minutes still on the halftime clock. After a pair of corners and two big saves by Emma Albee (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge), the Wolves broke through with a rebound goal by Wibien Dahmen that made it 1-1 just 3:49 into the second half.
It was a third quarter in which the Raider cage was besieged by Newberry pressure – the Wolves earned six of their seven penalty corners in the match and fired 12 shots (five on goal).
Shippensburg’s only shot in the quarter ended up in the back of the net. Garibaldi’s second of the day was the finish of a Hannah White (Princess Anne, Md./Washington) pass – she flicked the ball into the air and unleashed a swing that sent it screaming into the top right corner of the goal. The highlight-reel tally spirited the Raiders to a 2-1 lead at the 7:19 mark.
Garibaldi, who registered a hat trick in the only previous meeting between the two schools (a 5-2 win for the Raiders on Sept 9, 2022 at Robb Sports Complex), delivered her first multi-goal game this season and the 14th of her storybook career.
Undaunted, Newberry answered again with 1:51 left in the frame when Lieke Varenkamp delivered a diving backhand shot from the left side of the circle to even the score at 2-2. The Wolves nearly took the lead in the final 30 seconds when Amber Tozana flew a reverse chip past Albee’s raised stick that nicked the crossbar.
Despite only statistical shot on goal (by Newberry) and one penalty corner (by Shippensburg) in the fourth quarter, the Wolves threatened in the offensive zone on multiple occasions to no avail. After repeated warnings for various infractions throughout the match, a pair of yellow cards were assessed in the final three minutes of regulation – the first to Newberry, and the second to Shippensburg – to preface overtime.
Albee, who rose to the occasion several times in Sunday’s final, made a pair of stops in the opening 90 seconds of overtime, including a kick save with her outstretched right foot, to retain Newberry’s initial advance.
It prefaced Shippensburg’s game-winning goal which, in many ways, symbolized much of its entire season-long journey.
The play began in the backfield with an interception by White. After earning a foul, White quickly sent a lead pass to Lilly Cantabene (York, Pa./Dallastown Area), who received the ball a few steps past SU’s 23-meter line and began racing down the field despite being outnumbered 4-to-1 by Wolves defenders.
Given the mismatch, Cantabene made her way up the left wing and en route, dribbled around one of the oncoming backs to get the ball into the circle. Cantabene hesitated to achieve some space, enough to deliver a reverse chip that bounced through four Newberry defenders and in front of keeper Mangenah toward the right side of the frame.
Naudé, who was parallel to White at the time of her interception in the backfield, was the only other Raider in the remote vicinity of the play after having completed a 70-yard run up the right wing. The bouncing chip traveled right to her stick, and the South African senior deflected it into the open cage.
“Almost every single goal that our team has scored this year has been a team goal,” Naudé said. “Yes, there is one individual person who does touch the ball last and it goes in the goal. But every goal has been a team effort, and we do it for the team. It’s not for individual play. On that last goal, I knew the whole team was tired, and I just wanted to get it done so I’ve hustled my… all the way. Whether it was me or someone else, I know every single person on this team would’ve done the exact same thing.”
Naudé’s golden goal and Garibaldi’s third-quarter strike were the only two shots recorded by the Raiders by halftime and proved the difference in securing a national championship. Newberry ultimately out-shot the Raiders by a 16-2 margin over the final 32 minutes.
Head Coach Rayell Wallace, in her first season at the helm of the Raiders after being hired in April, was the lead instructor for an SU squad that went 14-3 this season. against teams ranked among the Top 10 in the NFHCA Division II poll. The Raiders played 74 percent of their games in 2025 against a nationally-ranked opponent (17-of-23).
Wallace becomes the 13th unique head coach to win an NCAA Division II National Championship and the third at Shippensburg (Bertie Landes in 2013 and 2016, Tara Zollinger in 2017, 2018 and 2021).
“It took a lot of belief and trust, but not necessarily from me or the coaching staff, but from (the players),” Wallace said. “It is hard when you have a coaching change, and in a program that definitely has a lot of tradition to it and a lot of success in it. Coming in as a new coach, what really helped us as a staff is that they bought into what we were doing, they trusted what we were doing, and it started with the seniors and the captains for sure.”
Shippensburg’s 2025 season began with 11 consecutive victories and a No. 1 national ranking. The Raiders then lost three of their final six games in the regular season, entering the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Tournament as the No. 3 seed with a 14-3 record.
SU finished 2025 by winning all six of its postseason games to become PSAC and NCAA Division II National Champions.
“Honestly, in the beginning, when we found out that we were going to be getting a whole new coaching staff, it obviously shoved us up against the back wall,” Naudé said. “And there was a slight loss of faith. But as soon as we were ready to take it on, we all knew that we have to buy in. And the only way we would be successful is if we trust in the program, trust in the team, and in the culture that we have. And the only way to make it is to buy in and make sure that we show our coaches that we want it, and we clearly got it.”
For the senior class (Albee, Cantabene, Garibaldi and Savannah Silvestre (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley)), it concludes a four-year run in which the Raiders went 70-14 and reached the national semifinals in all four seasons (including the national title game in 2022) but had not hoisted the championship trophy until Sunday.
“That first year [in 2022] I was so nervous for the National Championship,” Silvestre recalled. “I realize now after four years that it is so much more than (a game). It’s so hard to stay focused for 60 minutes. But that is why you have a team, because someone is going to pick you right up, and I am so honored to be a part of it [with this group].”
Sunday’s victory was the third of Shippensburg’s six national championships to be won in overtime, accompanying the titles achieved in 2013 (Bre White’s penalty stroke against LIU Post) and 2018 (Emily Stauffer’s tip-in in the rain against East Stroudsburg).
SU’s six NCAA Division II National Championships rank second all-time only to Bloomsburg (13). The Raiders, now 21-13 all-time in NCAA Tournament contests, have now matched Bloomsburg for the most games played (34) in the history of the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships.
“It has been a journey, and it hasn’t been a perfect one,” Naudé said. “But I think that’s what makes it a great journey. Like Coach said, we beat two teams that were unbeaten, and it just shows that perfect isn’t real. It’s what you make of it, and a loss, you learn so much from it. And we definitely learned a lot from that, and I learned a lot from that personally. And I just kept pushing, and that’s how we won.”
Notes:
- Shippensburg is now 6-2 all-time in the NCAA Division II Championship Game (victories in (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2025; losses in 2010 and 2022).
- Shippensburg is now 3-2 all-time in overtime games played in the NCAA Tournament -
- Shippensburg has won seven total national championships – the team’s first national championship in school history came in 1979, when the Raiders claimed the AIAW Division III national championship to complete a 16-2-3 season that included a school-record 14 shutouts.
- Shippensburg appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the 18th time in school history (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025).
- It is the second straight year that the NCAA Division II National Championship game was decided in overtime. Last season, Saint Anselm defeated Kutztown, 1-0. All three of the NCAA Field Hockey Championship games played Sunday (Division I, Division II and Division III) were decided in overtime.
- Shippensburg remains the last team to win a national championship with an undefeated season (20-0 in 2021).
Player Notes:
- Albee, the only Raider who was a member of SU’s last national championship team in 2021 (as a redshirt), completed her career with a 53-9 overall record while playing more than 3,800 minutes in goal. In addition to the school record for career shutouts (26), Albee ranks third in school history for career victories and 10th in career saves (259).
- Sunday’s victory put Albee into a tie for the single-season school record for goaltending victories. She joins Amanda Houser (20-3 in 2009), Ciarra Delost (20-2 in 2010), Carenna Neely (20-1 in 2013) and Ally Mooney (20-3 in 2016).
- Garibaldi completes her historic Raider career with 55 career goals (tied for seventh in school history), 31 career assists (fifth in school history) and 141 career points (seventh in school history).
- Silvestre completed her career appearing in 84 career games (T-11th in school history) and making 81 career starts (eighth in school history).
- Cantabene’s 67 career points (25 goals, 17 assists) are tied for 22nd in school history.
FIRST ROUND
Shippensburg defeats Kutztown, 3-1
The Shippensburg Raiders advanced to the 2025 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championship after a 3-1 win over Kutztown in Friday's semifinals. A pair of goals from Lilly Cantabene and one from McKenna Boyle paced the Raiders, while Grace Harrold tallied the only goal for KU. Shippensburg moves on to face Newberry in the 2025 Championship Game on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Kutztown ends its 2025 season with a final overall record of 20-2, with both loses coming to Shippensburg.
Newberry defeats West Chester, 3-0
Newberry remained unbeaten with a 3-0 win over Wester Chester, scoring in the opening minute of play and maintaining the lead the rest of the way. West Chester's season comes to a close with a final overall record of 14-7.
FIRST ROUND
Shippensburg defeats Saint Anselm, 3-0
Kutztown defeats Assumption, 2-0
West Chester defeats East Stroudsburg, 2-0
INDIANAPOLIS – Four Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference field hockey programs were selected to compete in the 2025 NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championship, the NCAA announced late Sunday night. Two-time defending PSAC champion Shippensburg, reigning national runner-up Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, and West Chester will all begin play in the tournament on Nov. 15 in the quarterfinals.
Kutztown, the No. 2 seed, will play No. 7 seed Assumption on the bottom half of the bracket, where No. 3 Shippensburg also faces defending national champion and No. 6 seed Saint Anselm.
In the top half of the bracket, a pair of PSAC squads face off – as No. 4 East Stroudsburg battles No. 5 West Chester. No. 1 Newberry and No. 8 Bentley round out the bracket.
The remaining four teams after the first round will meet in the national semifinals, held this year at Bloomsburg's Steph Pettit stadium on Nov. 21 and 23 for the semifinals and national championship game, respectively.