Through three seasons, the Marymount University Saints’ flag football team remains perfect in postseason play.
The Division III women’s team finished the spring campaign with a 4-0 playoff record that included winning two postseason tournaments. Coupled with the last two years, the Saints now own an 8-0 playoff mark.
This spring, the Saints finished with a 23-3 overall record. In the playoffs, Marymount was 2-0 to win the Atlantic East Conference tournament for the third straight time, then followed that by capturing the Eastern College Athletic Conference tourney title, also with a 2-0 mark.
“It was a great season, and that was a big deal to win both tournaments,” Marymount coach Mike Rivera told ARLnow.
The Saints lost their first and fifth games of the season, then rebounded strong to win 14 straight, with 11 by shutouts. That winning streak included 10 straight shutouts. The loss in match five was against Division I Mercyhurst University.
“We got better and better throughout the season,” Rivera said. “We clicked and were humming along by the end of the year.”
The Saints’ roster had no seniors but included some key returning players, along with multiple freshmen who contributed a lot.
“We had a very good balanced team,” Rivera said. “On defense, we blitzed well and had good cornerback and linebacker play. On offense, we rotated two quarterbacks who also each played other positions, and that made us very versatile.”
Those two rotating quarterbacks were Jesenia Velez, the Atlantic East Conference Player of the Year, and Cara Vollmer, who passed for 2,217 yards and 38 touchdowns and ran for 415 more yards and seven TDs.
Velez threw for 810 yards and 24 scores and ran for 1,098 yards and 19 TDs. She also caught 57 passes for 693 yards and seven touchdowns.
In the ECAC tournament championship game against Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, a 37-26 Marymount win, Velez amassed 372 all-purpose yards. She ran for three touchdowns, caught two scoring passes and threw two more. Vollmer passed for 256 yards and two TDs in that win.
Other rushing leaders were Brianna Lee (171 yards, five touchdowns), Isabella Silvestri (169 yards, two TDs) and Samayah Barnes (140 yards, two TDs).
Other top receivers were Kayla Barr with 70 catches for 910 yards and 18 touchdowns, Alexandria Veltri (38 catches, 14 scores), Velez (57 catches, 693 yards, seven scores) and Barnes (25 catches, five scores). Barr also ran for 228 yards and six touchdowns.
In addition, Dakotah Bright-Brubaker had 17 catches, ran for 212 yards and three scores, and passed for 198 yards and a touchdown.
On defense, Bright-Brubaker had five of the team’s 45 interceptions. Barr led the Saints with eight interceptions that she returned for 111 yards, and she broke up 12 passes and made 62 tackles. Leslie Villegas made 66 tackles, with eight for losses, including a sack.
Barnes made 46 tackles and had four interceptions, Yariliz Torres made 55 tackles, Jaylah Thompson made 38 tackles and had three interceptions, Victoria Johnson had 31 tackles, Micaiah Pride made 30 tackles, Morgan Lester had four interceptions and Veltri picked off three passes.
The team tallied 23 sacks.
Rivera and his staff were chosen as the Atlantic East Conference Coaching Staff of the Year.
The Saints were undefeated at 15-0 last season after playing just two games in their 2024 inaugural season, both in the Atlantic East tournament and winning both. Marymount’s three-year record overall is 40-3 with 32 shutouts.
NOTE: Starting in the spring 2028 season, there will be an NCAA flag playoff tournament for the first time. “We want to win a national championship at some point,” Rivera told ARLnow. … The ECAC tournament was sponsored by the National Football League’s New York Jets and played at the team’s practice facility in New Jersey.
