It was an historic weekend for the Atlantic East Conference recently as the Division III league hosted the first NCAA-level women’s flag football tournament, with the Marymount University Saints winning the title.
Marymount, Centenary, Immaculata and Neumann competed in the four-team competition.
Marymount won in a rout in its two games – blanking Centenary, 51-0, in the semifinals then Immaculata, 52-0, in the title match.
Scoring Marymount touchdowns were Samantha Bulik (with five), Cara Vollmer (four), Ella Morrison (three), Avery DeFazio (two) and Cara Craig and Emily Knabel with one each.
Samantha Bulik was chosen as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for her touchdowns, six flag pulls on defense and three interceptions.
DeFazio earned the Atlantic East Elite 20 Award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average competing at the finals site at each of the Atlantic East’s 20 team championships. Knabel also boasts a 4.0 grade-point average, but previously earned the award for women’s basketball and was ineligible for the flag award.
Other Marymount players were Yesly Xante, Mia Clevano, Sofi Plotkin, Riley McKeown, Grace Damato, Payton So, Delaney Donaghy, Amanda Coates, Sheila Kiernan and Kayla Wilson.
The tournament was the culmination of three weeks of practice and training under the guidance of Marymount head coach Michael Rivera. He has long been a coach of Arlington youth girls flag teams that have won championships at multiple levels, including nationally.
“We’re excited to see what else we can do with more time,” Knabel said. “Three weeks [of preparation] this year and we won the conference championship. Our coaches know what they’re doing and they’re already talking about recruiting. They know girls from the area from coaching in the area. I think we’re going to be a powerhouse.”
For the first tournament, the Marymount team mostly consisted of athletes from other teams at the university, like basketball, swimming, tennis and softball.
“It definitely helped having different skill sets from different sports,” said Knabel, who was a key contributor for the Marymount women’s basketball team this past winter.”
