After a season of improvement during the 2024 campaign, Danielle Montenegro, VMI water polo head coach, welcomes the largest incoming recruiting class since she began coaching at the Institute.—Photo courtesy VMI Athletics.
The VMI water polo team showed improvement during the 2024 campaign, as they captured the most program wins since 2021.
The Keydets had a strong non-conference slate to start the year, going 2-2 in their first four contests.
VMI will miss the play of Caragh Osborne ’24, who was the program’s lone 1st Class cadet this year and earned Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference All-Academic Team. Osborne finished her career in stellar fashion, setting the new program mark for career assists, with 117 in her four seasons of play. Osborne, who scored 21 goals and collected 41 steals, dished out 52 assists to break the previous career record by two (set by Genevieve Petrassi ’22).
Danielle Montenegro, head coach, who will be entering her fifth year at the helm, returns eight players from the 2024 squad, including top scorers Courtney Novotny ’25 (career-best 74 goals); Sydney Smith ’26 (career-best 60 goals); Sadie Smith ’26 (career-best 53 goals); and Sarah Fitzsimmons ’27, who netted 24 in her rookie season. Defensively, rookie Ysabel Casillas ’27 had a strong season in net, collecting 172 blocks, including 15 against 18th-ranked Wagner to end the season.
Novotny, Sadie Smith, and Julia Ward ’26 also led the team in the classroom, as all three were named to the MAAC All-Academic Team (3.2 GPA).
Additionally, Montenegro will have her largest incoming recruiting class joining the program next year, giving VMI its most sizeable roster in her tenure.
