Stockton Hosts 1995 Women's Soccer Final Four

“It was a magical group of women,” said Roy Wilkins when asked about the 1995 Stockton University women’s soccer team.

That team, which he coached, advanced to the NCAA Division III Final Four. It remains the only Stockton team in any sport to host an NCAA Final Four and is the only Stockton women’s team in any sport to reach the Final Four.

“Every girl was the captain of their high school team, every girl was wicked competitive, and we had one of the highest GPAs in the nation. We had a 3.8 GPA on that team,” said Wilkins, who was camping in Vermont when he took the call about his former team.

“You talk to anyone who coaches women’s soccer. If you have a smart team you’re going to win. They were all really smart. They knew ‘we’re at Stockton to become a physical therapist, marine biologist’.”

The Ospreys went 19-2-1, still a school record for wins in a season, and finished No. 5 in the Intercollegiate Soccer Coaches Association of America Poll. 

Stockton had earned an NCAA first-round bye that year, then met rival Trenton State and avenged a regular season loss with a 2-1 victory. Stockton prevailed 4-2 on penalty kicks against host Amherst (Mass.) after a 1-1 tie. They hosted Methodist in the NCAA Final Four but lost 2-0 in one semifinal game.

Wilkins started the women’s soccer program at Stockton in 1989. The late G. Larry James, the athletic director at the time, hired him “on the spot” and was a strong proponent of the program. Wilkins had been coaching for 18 years in Toms River, both girls and boys teams.

Wilkins, who was part time at Stockton, maintained his teaching job in Toms River. After a few seasons, he brought his wife Jane Wilkins on as an assistant coach. She was also a long-time and successful high school soccer coach in Toms River. She was a nurturing figure to the girls but was also tough.

“I became a state coach and I was coaching under-16 girls and that’s where I met Aundrea Tilly,” he said. “I coached her and convinced her she needed to come to Stockton. Being a high school girls coach in Toms River, I knew all the girls at the shore. I recruited heavily in the shore area.”

Some of the other key players in 1995, in addition to Tilly, were Sue Estevez, a top defender, Heather Barbalinardo, Mandy Stelling, Jennifer Kanzler, Cory Musselman, Michele Lane, Carolyn Toal, Vanessa Dickinson, Marcie Williams, the only Black starter, who came in as a goalie but was switched because of her speed, and Kristin Alexanderson, who was the goalie.

“When I recruited women, it wasn’t as much their technical ability as it was their attitude and how bad did they want to work to be successful,” said Wilkins, who was 191-61-17 in 14 seasons at Stockton.

Tilly, whose last name is DeJonge now, and her teammates bought in. She holds Stockton women’s soccer career records for goals (61), assists (36) and points (158) and earned First Team All-America honors in 1996, becoming the first All-American in program history.

She’s been married for nearly 24 years to Doug DeJonge, another Stockton grad, and they have two sons and have lived in Charlotte, N.C. since 2001.

“I always felt like soccer, sports in general, but soccer for me, was always real formative as far as a lot of leadership skills and learning how to be on a team and learning how to take criticism and work with that and grow,” said Aundrea DeJonge, who graduated with a degree in chemistry, was in the pharmaceutical field, was a stay at home mom and is now in real estate and working on a master’s degree.

“It was such a blessing to be a part of that and have the successes on the field. I’m still friends with some of the girls on the team. When I got there in the fall of ‘93, I came along with a really big group of freshmen. My freshman year, I think we were like (18-1-2). By the time we got to ‘95, a good solid portion of the team had really played together.”

Their toughness, skill and intelligence took them a long way.

“We got to Amherst, we played Trenton,” Wilkins said. “They’re the defending national champions. The girls had lost to them for three years. They score first. Then Williams made a cross and I think Vanessa, tied it up. I said, ‘we’re in this game’. At the end of the game, Williams goes down, gets the keeper to commit, and passes it back to Aundrea and Aundrea buries it. We beat them 2-1.”

The matchup against host Amherst came down to penalty kicks. Williams was moved in goal because of her quickness. She stopped several kicks. A Stockton player missed, then Stockton was up for the last kick. 

“Marcie walks up with all kinds of confidence, buries it, now we go to the Final Four,” Wilkins said.

Williams, who resides in Branchburg, New Jersey and is in pharmaceutical sales, remembers that day so well.

“From the first day of practice, we decided this was what we were going to do,” said Williams, who is a volunteer assistant girls basketball coach at her alma mater Westfield High. “…I was the last person to take the PK and we won. It was amazing. It was amazing in the beginning because for so long, NCAA Division III only took a certain amount of teams, and they would only take one team from New Jersey and it was always Trenton…That was the most amazing game, too, to play them somewhere neutral and to beat them.”

Wilkins didn’t really want to host a Final Four since there were so few distractions on the road. Plus, “Stockton had no facilities, there was nothing. We were playing in a field. There was no field house, no stands.

“…Former Stockton President (Vera) King Ferris came to me after the Final Four and said ‘we’re going to build you a field and a field house.’ All that facility you see at Stockton, was directly related to those women.”