Navy Enters Fall Ball Motivated After Feeling Sting of a Snub

When Navy gathered in the film room to watch the NCAA Selection Show, the Mids had barely dried the sweat and tears off from their overtime loss to Loyola in the Patriot League championship game.

More than 24 hours had passed since Navy rallied from a two-goal fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime against the Greyhounds, who had won the last four conference tournament crowns. Then Georgia Latch’s game-winner made it five in a row. Despite the still-fresh disappointment of a ring that got away, it was heartbreak mixed with hope.

“We believe in our conference and felt that with our RPI … that we had produced on the field,” Navy head coach Cindy Timchal said.

And yet Navy, with an RPI of 22, was left out of the 29-team field. Duke, a team with an RPI of 32 that Navy beat in its opener on Feb. 9, was one of the more controversial teams to slide in ahead of the Mids.

“We had done everything we could have to be in the tournament last year,” said Emily Messinese, who scored the final two goals for Navy against Loyola, bringing her 2024 team-leading total to 68. “Duke made it, and we’d beaten them in our first game of the season. The rest of the team and I thought almost beating Loyola in the championship and taking them to overtime would have helped us make the tournament, but in the end, it didn’t.”

Neither Timchal nor Messinese is trying to sound like sour grapes — and Messinese concedes losses to Drexel (an at-large tournament team) and Saint Joseph’s (which did not make the tournament) didn’t help their resume. But the heartbreak of missing the tourhament stung and is, in some ways, still raw.

Now, Navy is trying to turn that heartbreak into hustle. But that mindset didn’t start when the team returned to practice in September. No, 2025 started on Selection Sunday when associate head coach Brooke Shriver broke the silence.

“I remember her saying, ‘Remember this feeling,’” Messinese said. “We were disappointed but also had enough pride to feel we should have made the tournament. We remember how it felt to not be in the tournament when all of us knew we should have been in it last year.”

Messinese, a captain, headlines a group of offensive returners that includes Navy’s seven leading scorers from 2024, including Tori DiCarlo (58G, 14A), Kat McAteer (25G, 25A) and Lola Leone (40G, 7A).

“It’s helpful to have pretty much every single starter and player back,” Messinese said. “It has shown in practice that we are already connected and used to playing with one another. There are still some kinks that we’re working through, but we’re building on what we had last year and started where last year ended.”

Except there’s a key difference: Ava Yovino, who led Navy with 92 points on 42 goals and 50 assists during a breakout freshman season, is slated to return after missing 2024 with an injury. Unlike another offensive star from 2023, Leelee Denton, who sustained a career-ending injury in the fall, Yovino’s came a week before Navy’s first game.

“We had to regroup,” Timchal said. “It’s like the Miami Dolphins losing their starting quarterback. [Tua Tagovailoa, who sustained a concussion in the second week of the 2024 NFL season.] You have to go back, start from the beginning and work your way up.”

The answer was a balanced approach, led by Messinese and buoyed by McAteer’s performance on the left side. Alyssa Daley’s school-record 191 draw controls didn’t hurt either. The Mids more than made up for the Yovino’s loss, but they’re welcoming her back with open arms.

“She can score and assist, and assisting is really the piece that we need to emphasize more on our team,” Messinese said. “We have a lot of great dodgers and are heavy on one-on-one players who can score, and that’s great, but having someone who is able to feed, dodge and see the field well to facilitate our offense is beneficial.”

Yovino continues to do physical therapy, and Timchal doesn’t expect her to be at 100 percent until around February — just in time for game one.

The offense is loaded, but don’t discount the defense. Sure, the Mids lose a starter in Caroline Stefans (21CT, 30GB), but they return a trio of rising sophomores in it for the long haul in midfielder Mikayla Williams (25G, 16A, 48DC, 12CT, 30 GB), defender Jacyln Johns (12CT, 17GB) and goalie Felicia Giglio (8.69GAA, 43% SV%).

Giglio impressed from the get-go in the fall. A state champion at Bayport Blue-Point (N.Y.), Giglio performed as advertised, helping the Mids hold 13 opponents to single-digits.

“Her preparation started way before she arrived at the Naval Academy — the legacy of winning a state title,” Timchal said. “When she got here, it was about trusting the process. We worked on footwork and goalie conditioning.”

Giglio trusted the process, improved and earned the trust of her teammates. She saved her best rookie performance for last, a season-high 10-stop day against Loyola in the Patriot League finals.

Looking back, it’s that loss that sticks with Timchal more than the Selection Sunday snub.

“We were in a position to win,” Timchal said.

Of course, beating Loyola in a title game would leave no doubt and secure the league’s automatic qualifier. For what it’s worth, there’s only one Patriot League program to beat Loyola since 2014: Navy in a 15-5 win in the 2017 Patriot League championship.

Messinese, who will conclude her time in Annapolis this spring, says the first goal is to get back to championship Saturday in the first place.

“That’s what we’re working toward right now, and then from there, obviously making the tournament would be a dream come true, especially for our class,” she said.

But it’s fall, and Timchal is focused on the process — one that doesn’t include crunching RPI numbers, but that, like the mood in the film room on May 5, is tinged with home.

“We want to keep training toward excellence and a belief that we can truly make a difference in 2025,” Timchal said.

A one-goal swing from last year’s final game would make all the difference.