July 10, 2026
The East Region Playoff semifinals get underway Saturday at Lancaster Bible College’s Funk Stadium in Lancaster, Pa. Metropolitan Conference winners New York Athletic Club kick off the East Region Playoffs semifinals Saturday against Northeastern Conference winners, CT Rush. Kickoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. EDT. The second semifinal pits hosts Pennsylvania Classics versus Columbus Eagles FC at 7 p.m. EDT. The winners play Sunday at 1 p.m. at Funk Stadium for a berth into the WPSL Championships July 18 and 19 in Riverside, Mo.
One of the longest tenured clubs in the WPSL, New York Athletic Club returns to the postseason for the first time in a decade after a record-setting 2026 season that saw NYAC win its first Metropolitan Conference title, going 7-0-1 in conference play.
The only blemish on NYAC’s record came in a 2-0 Week Eight road loss to Clarkstown Soccer Club—two weeks after NYAC’s shocking 3-2 that ended Clarkstown’s 32 regular-season game unbeaten streak, thanks to a hat trick from Princeton University junior Dylan Jovanovic. The win earned NYAC Week Six Team of the Week honors, and Jovanovic Week Six National Offensive Player of the Week plaudits. Jovanovic, playing in her third WPSL season, tallied nine times in eight appearances for NYAC.
Led by center back Aofie Turner, a junior at Columbia University, NYAC allowed a conference-low five goals, with a committee of goalkeepers posting five clean sheets. New York Athletic Club joined the WPSL in 2006, and has competed in every season since, advancing to the East Region Playoffs final three straight years, from 2012 to 2014, and the East Region Playoffs semifinal in 2016.
Playing in what has become one of the most competitive conferences in all the WPSL, what CT Rush pulled off in its inaugural season is nothing short of incredible. All CT Rush needed entering its final game of the season to clinch the Northeastern Conference title was a draw—on the road, against the defending WPSL champions Sporting CT.
After going down a goal in the 33rd minute, Ari Mullin, a junior at Marist University, equalized one minute before the end of the first half in one of the most brilliant individual goals seen this season. Mullin won the ball near the halfway stripe, creating space with a spin-move, and sliced through the Sporting defense. The spectacular goal was Mullin’s second of the season. In a conference known for prolific scoring, CT Rush finished tops, tallying 23 goals on the season.
Jillian Gregorski, a junior at the University of Kansas, led the side with five goals in seven appearances. It was CT Rush’s defense that set it apart, allowing a conference-best five goals, earning four consecutive clean sheets at one point in the season.
Goalkeepers Chrysoula Gabriel, who is a sophomore at Washington and Lee University, and Addison Israel, a sophomore at Merrimack College, earned two clean sheets apiece. It was Israel, and a back line of Mackenzie Reid, a junior at Fordham University, Colleen Ardolino, a senior at Bryant University, Julia Johnson, who is a sophomore at Princeton University, and Taylor Sztaba, a sophomore at Stonehill College that stonewalled the dangerous Sporting CT attack giving CT Rush its first Northeastern Conference title and first WPSL postseason appearance.
Mid-Atlantic Conference champions Pennsylvania Classics are returning to postseason play for a second consecutive year looking to advance to the WPSL Championships for the first time in club history. Getting here wasn’t easy. Classics went an unbeaten 7-1-0 in Commonwealth division play to finish five points clear of second place Reading United A.C. The only hiccup was a 2-2 draw at Reading in the opening match of the season.
With the division title in hand, Classics hosted Colonial Division representatives Love City FC for the Mid-Atlantic championship. After going down a goal in the seventh minute, Classis responded with four unanswered goals. A second late goal by Love City made it a 4-2 final.
Penn State Harrisburg sophomore Teagan Paragon leveled the score at 1-1 in the 20th minute, followed by Louisville University senior Liza Suydam in the 41st to put Classics in the lead. Lia Francis, a junior from Millersville University made it 3-1 in the 50th minute, and Lindsey Husic, a senior at Monmouth University put the game out of reach in the 70th minute.
Suydam led the club and the division with seven goals on the season, making appearances in all nice Classics matches this season. Ashley Economopoulos finished second in scoring for the club and division with six goals in six appearances. Economopoulos is a sophomore at Old Dominion University. Classics led the Commonwealth Division on both the offensive and defensive sides, tallying 29 goals—nine more than the next side, while conceding only seven posting five clean sheets.
This is Pennsylvania Classics second postseason appearance. Last year Classics advanced to the East Region Final, beating Brooklyn City F.C. in 3-2 in the semifinal before falling to eventual WPSL champions Sporting CT 2-1 in the final.
Columbus Eagles FC makes its first postseason appearance on the heels of one of the fiercest divisional battles in recent memory. A single point was all that separated the top two teams in the Great River Division table. Columbus finished divisional play 6-0-2, one point shy of division winner FC Dayton, which opted out of postseason play, passing the coveted East Region Playoffs berth to the Eagles.
Columbus led the division in both scoring and goal allowed. The iconic Nikki Cox, who gave birth to her second child weeks before the start of the season, led both the club and division with 10 goals in seven matches on the season, including a Week Four hat trick that earned her East Region Offensive Player of the week honors. Cox would go on to tally a hat trick of hat tricks, scoring three goals twice more.
On the other side of the ball, Columbus allowed a division-low six goals—one less than FC Dayton. A committee of goalkeepers kept four clean sheets in goal for Columbus, which never allowed more than two goals in a game. The second most tenured club in the East Region behind New York Athletic Club, Columbus Eagles FC entered the WPSL in 2014, winning one division title in 2023.
