DAYTONA BEACH — Daytona State’s women’s soccer coach Hope Clark didn’t think it could get any better than the Falcons’ run to a 2024 national title.
But Daytona State topped it in 2025.
The Falcons capped a perfect 20-0 season with a 5-4 victory over Arizona Western, the same school they beat in the 2024 final, in a six-round shootout after both teams were held scoreless through two overtimes.
“I always said winning a national championship is something that every athlete dreams of, coaches, and then for us to do it, I kind of still was a little bit in shock,” Clark said. “I mean, I knew on paper we were going to be better. But any time you bring in 13 new players, trying to get that cohesiveness together, if you’d have asked me back in August, ‘Would we be here now?,’ no, I would never have even contemplated it.”
Daytona State arrived on campus for a celebration Monday, Dec. 1, forming a semicircle in black tracksuits with the scoreboard reading “National 20, Champions 25.” The last time it lost was a 2-0 defeat to Eastern Florida State on Sept. 20, 2024 — 35 matches ago.
It was familiar territory for the Falcons as they had a similar ceremony last year after the program’s first NJCAA Division I championship.
But this time, they were joined by the men.
The male Falcons finished as the national runners-up with a 1-0 loss to Indian Hills Community College. It marked their best finish in program history in Year 3 under head coach Joe Avallone.
“I go into every season thinking we’re going to get out there,” Avallone said. “… So yeah, we go in with that mentality. I mean, it doesn’t always work out that way, but you certainly go in with the anticipation to do your best.”
The rise of Daytona State soccer
After consecutive national championships, a perfect season and a 35-match win streak, the women’s team has made a name for itself the past couple seasons. The men’s appearance in the national-championship match cemented the Falcons’ status as a program.
Less than 10 years ago, in 2016, Daytona State started both soccer programs under athletic director Will Dunne and college president Thomas LoBasso, a former soccer player himself.
“That kind of intersected for us in 2016 when we had a president that loved the sport of soccer,” Dunne said. “We had an opportunity to look at what we might be able to do to add some opportunities to future prospective student athletes. Soccer just seemed to be a good fit.”
Daytona State saw immediate success from both programs. The men finished 17-3-1 and the women 11-3 in their inaugural seasons, and both teams have only had a handful of seasons under 10 wins.
The Falcons have taken the next step since they hired Clark in 2021 and Avallone in 2023. Four years later, Clark became the second female coach in NJCAA D1 history to win back-to-back women’s soccer titles.
She was also named NJCAA Coach of the Tournament and was awarded a plaque in front of the hundreds of supporters that turned up at DSC Stadium. Avallone was honored as the NJCAA’s Region 8 Coach of the Year as well.
“Competitive nature, but really grounded people that have strong beliefs in doing things the right way, treating students the right way and still have a responsibility-accountability paradigm” Dunne said when asked what he looked for in a coach. “We want (the students) to come here and have fun and grow and learn, but we want them to do it a certain way and be accountable for that. And it just seemed like with their background and their history, that’s what they both brought to the table.”
Chemistry was the difference
The coaches weren’t the only ones honored at the ceremony.
Sophomore midfielder Shaneil Buckley was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and Most Outstanding Offensive Player, and goalkeeper Julianna Trujillo was the tournament’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.
Buckley, Trujillo, forward Susu Roberts, forward Sienna Gillespie and forward Reese Garcia Roman earned women’s all-tournament honors.
Cale Saunders was named the men’s Most Valuable Defensive Player, and he and midfielder Joachim Kyei earned all-tournament honors.
While the individual honors are nice, the overall chemistry on both teams was a focus by both coaches. According to Avallone in his speech to the Falcon faithful, the men’s team chose “unity” as the program’s theme in 2025.
“To our players, you selected the theme of unity, you carried it all the way through,” Avallone said on the microphone. “You won with a lot of guts. You also lost with dignity. I’m very proud of every one of you.”
And with junior colleges having a two-year eligibility cap, it makes chemistry building more challenging but effective when done right.
“I think that honestly, last year, the girls were telling me this, the girls were close,” Clark said. “I’m a culture-driven coach, I preach family, but the girls told me all this year, ‘We’re closer than even last year, we’re closer than even last year.’ And to me, I had an AD tell me one time that X’s and O’s will take care of themselves if your culture is right.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona State has become NJCAA soccer hub after another historic year
Reporting by Zach Allen, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
