By Jackson Shoe | @jackson.shoe
UNCW entered the 2026 season with little need to start over.
The Seahawks were coming off an 11-3-4 campaign in which they went 7-0-2 in CAA play, scored 31 goals and closed the regular season unbeaten in their final 10 matches. Much of the group responsible for that run returned this fall.
What Head Coach Chris Neal has added around that returning core, however, is already making a difference.
Through four matches, UNCW is 3-0-1 after wins over Appalachian State, Western Carolina and Old Dominion and a draw at Georgia Southern. The Seahawks have scored eight goals while allowing three, with production coming from a combination of established returners and newcomers. Few players illustrate that combination better than Hailey Longwell and Caigan Leonard.
Longwell was part of last year’s success after transferring from Duquesne. Leonard arrived this offseason from Saint Louis and has quickly found a larger role in Wilmington.
Their paths to UNCW were different, but together they represent a roster that has maintained much of what worked in 2025 while finding additional production elsewhere. Longwell arrived at UNCW with a proven Division I scoring record.
After missing her freshman season at Duquesne because of injury, she appeared in all 17 matches as a redshirt freshman in 2024 and made nine starts. longwell scored six goals in 906 minutes, including two-goal performances against Mercyhurst and Slippery Rock. She finished the year with 12 points before entering the transfer portal.
Her production increased after arriving in Wilmington.
Longwell led UNCW with seven goals and 18 points last season while sharing the team lead with four assists. She scored twice against Hampton and found the net in four consecutive CAA matches during a stretch in October. Longwell also finished with two game-winning goals and a team-high 36 shots. That production helped UNCW navigate conference play without a loss.
But the Seahawks’ 2025 attack was not dependent on one player. Kayla Adams finished with 10 points, while Ayanna Parker and Allie Planeaux each had nine. Ava Vaughan scored three goals, and Reese Bodas added six points. UNCW finished the season with 11 different game-winning goals as a team and averaged 1.70 goals per match.
The offseason brought turnover, but it did not require Neal to rebuild the roster from the ground up.
Longwell returned along with Planeaux, Vaughan, Bodas, Rachel Fry, Abbey Pierson, Alyssa and Ava Chuderewicz and Megumi Umemoto, among others. That gave UNCW experience throughout a lineup that had already been through an unbeaten CAA regular season.
Leonard was added to that foundation.
Her statistical profile at Saint Louis was considerably different from Longwell’s when she arrived at UNCW.
Leonard appeared in 27 matches during two seasons with the Billikens, never making a start. She finished her Saint Louis career with one goal and one assist across 491 minutes. As a sophomore in 2025, Leonard appeared 13 times and played 179 minutes without recording a goal or assist.
Her opportunity, and production, changed almost immediately in Wilmington.
UNCW opened its season Aug. 13 with a 3-0 victory over App State. Longwell scored the Seahawks’ first goal of the season before assisting Leonard later in the match.
Three days later, Leonard needed only 73 seconds to score against Western Carolina. Kamrey Watkins and Planeaux assisted the goal as UNCW went on to win 2-1 and improve to 2-0.
Through those first two matches alone, Leonard had already scored twice as many goals as she had during her entire Saint Louis career. UNCW’s cumulative statistics after the Western Carolina match listed Leonard as the team leader with two goals and four points, while Longwell had a goal and an assist.
The early start has not been built solely around those two.
UNCW fell behind Old Dominion in the eighth minute of its home opener before responding. Planeaux equalized before halftime, and the Seahawks completed a 2-1 comeback victory.
Three days later, UNCW faced another deficit at Georgia Southern and again responded, earning a 1-1 draw to remain unbeaten. The result moved the Seahawks to 3-0-1 through four matches.
Those results have extended a successful stretch that began well before the 2026 opener.
UNCW’s 2025 season did not start the same way. The Seahawks lost two of their first four matches and stood 4-3-1 entering CAA play. From there, they went unbeaten over their final 10 regular-season matches, winning seven consecutive conference games before draws against Campbell and Elon closed the regular season.
The opening weeks of 2026 have offered a different path.
Instead of needing time to establish itself, UNCW has carried much of last year’s continuity directly into the new season. Players who occupied important roles during the 11-win campaign remain throughout the lineup, while the roster has been supplemented by additions capable of contributing immediately.
Longwell’s two seasons in Wilmington provide one example of how that approach can work. She arrived after already establishing herself as a scorer at Duquesne and became UNCW’s leading attacking player in her first season with the Seahawks. One year later, she is no longer a newcomer. She is part of the returning foundation around which another transfer has emerged.
Leonard’s first four matches provide a different example.
Her arrival was not accompanied by a large scoring résumé. Her 27 appearances at Saint Louis produced one career goal. At UNCW, an expanded opportunity has been followed by immediate production.
It is still August, and four matches provide only an early picture of what UNCW will become by the time CAA play begins. But the Seahawks have already demonstrated that their 2026 roster is not simply trying to replace the team that went 11-3-4 last season.
Much of that team is still here.
And the pieces added around it are already beginning to leave their mark.
