Holy Cross Athletics | 2025 In Review

As 2025 winds to a close, take a look back at some highlights from an eventful year in Holy Cross Athletics. 

Men's ice hockey traveled to Palm Springs, Calif. to participate in the inaugural Cactus Cup in January, hosted by UMass Lowell and Acrisure Arena, to kick off the New Year. The Crusaders faced off against Omaha and Michigan Tech.

Kalif Raymond '16 earned All-Pro second team honors from the Associated Press as a punt returner for the Detroit Lions, as announced in January. It marks the second time in the last three seasons that Raymond has earned this honor. 

Head women's lacrosse coach Amanda Belichick agreed to a new contract extension in February that runs through the 2027 season.

More than 3,800 donors came together during the 2025 Power of Purple Giving Day on Feb. 7 and 8 to raise a new giving day record of $1.24 million for the Crusader Athletics Fund.

The baseball team upset No. 22 Auburn 4-2 on Feb. 15, defeating a ranked opponent for the second straight season.

Head softball coach Jon Ladino picked up his first win at Holy Cross, 5-2 over Morehead State, on Feb. 21.

The men's swimming and diving team broke 14 program records at the Patriot League Championship in February, while the women's team set five new marks.

Candice Green had her interim tag removed, and was named the permanent head coach of the women's basketball team on Feb. 24. 

The men's ice hockey team won the Atlantic Hockey regular season title for the first time since 2006, finishing with a 19-5-2 record in league play.

The Mount St. James Collective was launched in February to assist Holy Cross student-athletes in leveraging their name, image and likeness.

Men's lacrosse defeated Bucknell, 11-10 in double overtime on Senior Day on March 1, marking the program's first win over the Bison since 2017.

Track and field picked up nine medals and broke five school records at the Patriot League Indoor Championship.

Men's ice hockey entered the national rankings, sitting at No. 19 nationally on March 17 after entering the top 20 on March 3.

Tickets sold out in two minutes as the men’s ice hockey team hosted a sellout crowd for the 2025 Atlantic Hockey Championship Game.

Liam McLinskey capped off a prolific career with the Crusader men's ice hockey team by earning a number of accolades. For the second consecutive year, McLinskey was named a Top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. He also became the first player in Atlantic Hockey history to be named Atlantic Hockey Player of the Year twice, and was also named Forward of the Year and Scoring Champion. He was later named a Second Team East All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA). 

Senior Thomas Gale of men's ice hockey was named Goaltender of the Year and Goaltending Champion. Head men's ice hockey coach Bill Riga earned Atlantic Hockey Coach of the Year honors, and was later named a finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award, given each season to the national coach of the year in Division I men's hockey. 

Ginger Berry, a senior on the women's rowing swimming and diving teams, was named one of just 10 women semifinalists for the 2025 Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar of the Year.

Men's tennis posted the most Patriot League regular season victories in program history.

Men's basketball's Dave Paulsen served as the head coach for the East Team in the 2025 Reese's Division I All-Star Game in San Antonio in April, where they posted a 100-91 victory.

Holy Cross hosted its home outdoor track and field meet, which was renamed to be called the Jim Kavanagh Legacy Invitational, on April 19.

A number of Holy Cross student-athletes presented at the College's annual Academic Conference on April 23.

Luke Newman '24 was selected in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears.

Five baseball student-athletes had their jerseys retired in April: Jack Barry (Class of 1910), Owen Carroll (Class of 1925), Jim O'Neill (Class of 1952), Ron Perry (Class of 1954) and Louis Sockalexis (Class of 1897). Genoa Grosch Dickson (Class of 1999), a softball alumna, will have her jersey retired this upcoming spring. 

Women's lacrosse earned a home game in the tournament quarterfinals, where they defeated Colgate 19-13 on April 27 to advance to the semifinals for the second straight season.

The men's golf team finished in second place at the Patriot League Championship, with senior Nolan Schuermann becoming just the second player in program history to win the league individual title. Schuermann was later named the Patriot League Men's Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year and finished in a tie for 49th place at the NCAA Amherst Regional, firing a strong 74-74-71-219 (+9) performance.

Head coach Steve Napoli was named the Patriot League Men's Golf Coach of the Year for the first time in his career.

Track and field picked up seven medals and broke eight women's school records when it hosted the Patriot League Outdoor Championship from May 2-3. Senior Haley Murphy took home gold and set a new school and Patriot League Championship meet record in the 400m hurdles with a time of 59.08.

Murphy and football's Christo Kelly were named co-winners of the 2024-25 Crusader of the Year award, marking the first time in school history that the Varsity Club presented two winners — one men's, one women's — for Crusader of the Year.

Baseball won the Patriot League regular season and tournament championships, to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. They competed at the Chapel Hill Regional, taking on No. 5 overall seed and D1Baseball.com's No. 1 nationally-ranked North Carolina on May 30 and Nebraska on May 31. 

Baseball junior CJ Egrie earned Patriot League Player of the Year honors, while junior Jaden Wywoda was named the Patriot League Pitcher of the Year. Ed Kahovec was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year for the second straight season.

Holy Cross student-athletes from the Class of 2025 received their degrees at Commencement on May 23.

Seventeen of Holy Cross' athletic teams achieved a perfect score of 1,000 in the NCAA's academic performance standard, the Academic Progress Rate (APR). These 17 teams all had a perfect multi-year APR score (based on data from the 2020-2021 through 2023-2024 school years), which tied Holy Cross for third in the nation out of 362 Division I schools. 

Twenty-seven Crusader student-athletes were named Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholars.

Holy Cross student-athletes continued to raise the bar for academic excellence during the Spring 2025 semester, with a department semester grade-point average of 3.43 during the term — the highest department GPA on record. 

Holy Cross coaches and staff made stops in Washington, D.C., Boston and New York City in May for the third annual Coaches Road Show, also welcoming alumni during Reunion Weekend and the fourth annual Coaches Home Show in June.

Women's track and field's Haley Murphy was selected as one of the Patriot League's nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

Liam Lyons placed 42nd in the 1500m with a time of 3.46.63 at the NCAA East Regional First Round hosted by UNF in Jacksonville, Fla. on May 28.

The men's rowing team qualified for the IRA National Championship in June for the first time since 2015, finishing in 20th as a team.

Head baseball coach Ed Kahovec signed a three-year contract extension in June. 

Men's basketball alumnus Caleb Kenney earned the Co-Men's Award of Outstanding Leadership & Character from the Patriot League in late June.

Men's basketball alumnus Bo Montgomery signed with his hometown Memphis Grizzlies for the 2025 NBA Summer League in June.

In another record-setting year for Holy Cross Athletics, 4,786 donors contributed $3.56 million to the Crusader Athletics Fund (CAF) during the 2025 fiscal year. This marks a new benchmark for dollars raised and total donors, surpassing the previous record set in 2019 by more than 500 donors — and an 11 percent increase from fiscal year 2024.

Men's rowing competed at Henley Royal Regatta in July, with their Varsity Eight tightly competing with the defending champions, Oxford Brookes "A."

Baseball's Danny Macchiarola was drafted as the 242nd pick in the eighth round of the 2025 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners, becoming the highest drafted Crusader since 1982.

Men's ice hockey senior Mack Oliphant (Vancouver Canucks), junior Jack Stockfish (Nashville Predators), and freshman Danick Leroux (New York Islanders) attended NHL Development Camps following the NHL Draft this summer.

The men's basketball team participated in an immersion tour of Greece in late July, with stops in Thessaloniki, Meteora and Athens.

A total of six Crusader alumni participated in NFL Training Camps: Liam Anderson (Indianapolis Colts), Jalen Coker (Carolina Panthers), C.J. Hanson (Kansas City Chiefs), Luke Newman (Chicago Bears), Kalif Raymond (Detroit Lions) and Benton Whitley (Arizona Cardinals).

We hosted our Student-Athlete Welcome Back event at the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel for the second straight year on Aug. 27.

Fans are now able to purchase the official merchandise of their favorite Crusader student-athletes, as the department teamed up with Athletic Solutions and TCA Adidas in August for an exclusive deal for Athletic Solutions to be the sole retailer of adidas NIL player merchandise.

Volleyball head coach Matthew Cribbin picked up his first win at Holy Cross, a 3-2 five set victory against St. Peter's at the Mercyhurst Invitational on Sept. 6. The volleyball program would go on to earn its most wins in a season since 2016.

We held our third annual Crusader Community Fest on Sept. 14, welcoming a record number of attendees from the Worcester community to learn new sports and meet our student-athletes.

Following a vote by the student body, the “WooCru” was selected as the official name for Holy Cross' student section at home events.

Holy Cross Athletics officially partnered with Team IMPACT to provide life-changing experiences for children and their families, while deepening connections between student-athletes and the broader Worcester community.

Men's soccer senior Julian Beban was named to the Allstate Good Works Team, as announced by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Men's ice hockey graduates Liam McLinskey (Florida Panthers) and Jack Ricketts (Utah Mammoth) received invites to NHL Training Camps. 

Ashley Zilora of the women's tennis team was selected for The Team's Engaged Athlete Fellowship. The Engaged Athlete Fellowship empowers a diverse class of motivated student athletes nationwide to strengthen nonpartisan civic participation on their teams, their campuses and their broader communities.

Holy Cross Athletics joined forces with Shift Group, led by JR Butler '08, in September to provide student-athletes the tools, coaching, and resources they need to translate their athletic experience into real-world career success. 

Women's ice hockey set a new program record by posting seven victories prior to the start of November, including three straight shutouts from Oct. 18-26.

The men's rowing Varsity 8+ won the Collegiate 8+ at the famed Head of the Charles Regatta on Oct. 19, while the women's rowing team's Varsity 4+ finished 11th, marking a new program best-finish, on Oct. 18. The men medaled for the second straight year after placing third last season.

Women's soccer's Aubrey Haesche was named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year after leading the league in saves (96), save percentage (.889) and goals-against average (0.690). She owned a 6-5-6 record and had six shutouts to end the year.

Freshman Phoebe Devine of the women's tennis team made program history at the 2025 ITA New England Regional, becoming the first student-athlete to win a main draw match. Devine also picked up a win at the Patriot League ITA Masters Qualifier. 

Cross country's Joseph Mahon placed third overall (24:23.5) and Siena Brunetti came in seventh individually (21:05.8) at the 2025 Patriot League Championship on Oct. 31.

The men's golf team hosted the Crusader Invitational presented by CoveRisk at the Worcester Country Club in October, finishing in fourth place. 

The 2025 class in the Holy Cross Varsity Club Athletic Hall of Fame was formally inducted on Oct. 25. The class included Maureen Connolly (Class of 2018, field hockey), Jerry Dickinson (Class of 2009, soccer), Ed Kutschke (Class of 1986, football), Megan Orr (Class of 2007, lacrosse), David Puloka (Class of 2001, football, track and field) and Ann Zelesky (honorary).

Women's soccer earned the first home playoff game in program history, marking the second time in 25 years that the Crusaders earned a postseason berth.

Women's basketball started off its season with a 72-71 win over Boston College on Nov. 3. This is the first time Holy Cross has beaten Boston College in Conte Forum since 1997. Simone Foreman scored the game-winning shot to lead the Crusaders to victory.

Men's soccer's Archie Hatcher was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year after leading the team and tying for the conference lead in scoring with 15 points on six goals and three assists.

Holy Cross student-athletes took part in the NCAA's annual Civic Engagement Day, connecting with a number of organizations across Worcester.

Women's ice hockey's Naemi Herzig competed for the Swiss National Team at the 2025 Lidl Hockey Games from Nov. 5-8, where she scored a goal in a game against Finland. She also played for Switzerland in the Women's Euro Hockey Tour from Dec. 10-12.

The football team hosted Georgetown at historic Fenway Park on Nov. 22, defeating the Hoyas 42-7 in front of a lively crowd of nearly 14,000 students, families, alumni and fans. 

Holy Cross signed a multi-year contract with adidas in November to continue serving as the exclusive apparel provider for Crusader Athletics. Additionally, the Holy Cross athletic department has signed a multi-year deal with the BSN SPORTS Collegiate Select Division to serve as a third-party vendor for all of the department's uniforms, apparel, equipment and accessories.

Holy Cross welcomed 3,000 students from Worcester Public Schools for its annual Field Trip Game, presented by Polar Beverages, on Dec. 16.

Field hockey's Megan Schienbein was named to Team Canada's roster for the 2025 FIH Hockey Women's Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile in December.

Men's ice hockey's Jack Stockfish was named to the U.S. Collegiate Selects Team traveling to Davos, Switzerland for the Spengler Cup from Dec. 26-31.

Holy Cross Athletics and HC For A Cure hosted the annual Benching for Breast Cancer event on Dec. 5.

Senior Max Mosey earned All-America honors from Stats Perform as a punt returner for the football team. 

Holy Cross announced that it will officially dedicate the court at the Hart Center Arena at the Luth Athletic Complex in honor of one of the most iconic individuals in Holy Cross and basketball history: Bob Cousy. A formal dedication and celebration will take place during Winter Homecoming weekend on Saturday, Feb. 7.

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