Northampton, MA --- Maeve Steckley (Rochester, NY) registered a goal in the opening 10 minutes and Abigail Johnson (Middletown, CT) added an insurance marker midway through the second half as the WPI women's soccer team clinched a slot in next week's NEWMAC Tournament with a 2-0 road victory at conference foe Smith on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
With the triumph, WPI improves to 10-5-3 overall and 5-3-2 in conference action.  The Engineers currently have amassed 17 points and sit in fifth place in the 12-team league.  Coach Steph Riley-Schafer's squad has one contest remaining in the regular season and can finish anywhere between fourth and sixth place.  Springfield (19 points) and Wheaton (12 points) both have matches later this evening and then on the final match day on Saturday.  Smith slips to 3-10-2 on the season and 2-7-1 in NEWMAC play.
 
In a game in which they launched 21 shots, it was their first bid at net that resulted that in a goal as Steckley sent in a feed from Katie Adiletta (Bolton, MA) in the lower left part of the goal for the junior's sixth goal of 2025 and 18th of her career at 9:29.  The goal marked the only scoring of a tightly-contested opening 45 minutes, with WPI holding a slight 6-5 bulge in shots and each team awarded one corner kick.
 
The second half was a different story as the Engineers uncorked 15 shots in the frame.  The combination of Steckley and Johnson was particularly effective, accounting for six shots in a seven-minute span with Steckley nearly missing out on grabbing the team's scoring lead from Johnson, but finding the iron unkind as she hit the crossbar only to see Johnson notched her team-leading seventh goal 23 seconds later when she launched in a shot to upper left of net at 62:20. 
 
Smith continued to show life mustering five of their 12 shots over the match over the final 27 minutes but were unable to penetrate the WPI defense.  Ayla Verheul (Naarden, The Netherlands) amassed four stop en route to second solo clean sheet and the Engineers ninth of the season.  Sky Smith (Carlisle, MA) was strong in net for her final home appearance for the Bears, tallying 10 saves.
 
The guests finished the day outshooting Smith 21-12 with both teams attempting four corners.   Steckley and Johnson combined for nine shots with Bears forward Kaleigh Quinn (Bristol, RI), the conference's goal-scoring co-leader with 13, pacing all players with six shots on the day.

Both squads close out the regular season with NEWMAC road contests on Saturday afternoon.  WPI heads to Cambridge for face No. 8 MIT at 4pm while Smith ventures to New London to take Coast Guard at 3pm.