By By Jonathan Raymond, News Staff

‘ It’s arguable, I think, that last year could have been the first where Northeastern truly belonged in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) since joining in 2005.
Instead of simply being known for having a reputable men’s basketball team and one of the flagship programs in the CAA’s football venture, the Huskies experienced success across the full spectrum of sports and proved Northeastern means something to the CAA.
The men’s soccer team’s deep run in the CAA playoffs, the men’s basketball team’s solid season, the volleyball team’s regular season championship and the women’s rowing team’s capturing of the inaugural CAA championship in that sport all proved that Northeastern, as an entire athletic program, deserves recognition in a conference that has continued to prove to be a step up from the America East.
And, of course, there was the women’s soccer team’s CAA championship and run in the NCAA tournament. If coach Ed Matz’s recruiting class, announced July 20, is any indication, the women’s soccer team could also give Northeastern its first true CAA conference powerhouse.
With a young team that remains largely intact, an improvement on last year’s 13-9-2 record (6-5 CAA) could be a reasonable goal. The Huskies will at least have to manage that if they want to make the playoffs, which now include just four teams instead of the traditional six. Last year’s fourth place team, Old Dominion, finished 7-3-1 in conference (14-4-2 overall), so a huge improvement isn’t entirely necessary. A slight one will do.
Which brings us back to the recruiting class. It says something about the program Matz has built up that this year’s class will rely less on true freshmen and more on transfers of talented players from big-time programs like Boston College and Georgetown. Sophomore forward Gretta Samuelsdottir is the Georgetown transfer who also happens to play for the Icelandic national team. She recently helped her national team get to the European championship finals, and will figure as yet another weapon in a potent Husky scoring attack that already includes sophomores Veronica Napoli (a third-team All American last year) and Kelly Matthews, among others.
Boston College, meanwhile, loses sophomore defender Danielle Gordon, who will make her way to Huntington Avenue to help shore up the Huskies’ lone potential weak spot in the back and, hopefully, keep her sister, sophomore keeper Stephanie Gordon, from having to do too much work. Georgina Kemp, a sophomore defender from London, rounds out the transfer class, coming from Fairfield to also help shore up the defense that lost Brenna Matthews and Emilee Ellison to graduation.
It’s not just the transfers that inspire hope, though, for this year’s squad. The true freshmen aren’t too shabby, either. Where Napoli shined as a freshman attacker last year, we could see a repeat performance this year from forward Devin Petta, who comes to Northeastern as a 2008 high school All-American and Massachusetts Player of the Year from Whitman-Hanson High School. Petta scored 103 goals in her high school career, including 39 her senior season. Midfielder Heidi Mogstad, from Osio, Norway, adds to the potentially elite scoring unit, as does forward Melissa Menapace, Holliston High School’s all-time leading scorer, and Erin Gavelik, a Lowell, Ind., native who set her school’s assist record.
On top of that, there are two goalkeepers, Megan Penn from South Dennis and Stephanie Reimer of Montebello, N.Y., and three more forwards, Bianca Vecchiarello of Peabody, Sandra Magnusdottir ofReykjavik, Iceland, and Marcela Bedoya from Weston, Fla., to bolster the class.
In its short time in the CAA, Northeastern has yet to establish itself as the measuring stick program in any sport. But with a CAA title to defend, and a recruiting class that could be as talented as any in the conference, the Huskies may be able to boast an all-around premier CAA program.

‘- Jonathan Raymond can be reached at [email protected].