Celia Kanellakos ’28 is a junior midfielder for the Swarthmore women’s soccer team hailing from Chatham, NJ. This past Saturday, Kanellakos scored her first goal of the season (the eventual game-winner) against No. 17-ranked Johns Hopkins University in a highlight play. She received a diagonal long ball from center back Aminah Evans ’28, cut through the Blue Jays’ defensive line, and drove the ball into the back of the net. In the 78th minute, Kanellakos won the Garnet their conference opener in a 1-0 win.
After the Garnet dropped out of the top 25 D3 teams in the nation due to a loss and a draw against Rowan University and The College of New Jersey, Kanellakos’s goal gave the Garnet a much-needed win over a ranked opponent to begin conference play.
This is a great start for Kanellakos, who is looking to follow up her All-Centennial First Team performance from last season. A graduate of the Kent Place School, Kanellakos is an honors linguistics major, an honors sociology & anthropology minor, and a course art history minor here at Swarthmore.
Charlie Watson: First and foremost, how were you feeling coming into the game?
Celia Kanellakos: Pretty good. We knew [Hopkins] graduated a bunch of their seniors, so it was going to be a slightly different team from years past. Once we started playing the game, the vibe was much different than when we played before. Oftentimes, we would have to do a lot more defending and sitting back, waiting for opportunities to go forward. This time, a lot of the play was happening in the midfield. They had some chances, but we were getting better chances; I was feeling pretty good, pretty excited. I even told one of my teammates, ‘Yeah, I feel good; I think I’m gonna score.’ Chuck [Charlotte Carleton ’27] hit a shot off the post in the first half, then I hit one off the post in the second half. So after that one, I was like, ‘The next one is definitely going in.’
On the goal specifically, … [Hopkins] was way overshifted when I looked back at the film, so I had lots of space. I cut in and just had to finish from twelve yards out, which thankfully I’m capable of doing. It was really, really exciting. We just had to defend for the last fifteen or so minutes, which we’re quite good at doing. Our defense is amazing. If we don’t get a defense player of the week this week, I’m gonna be mad.
Editors’ note: Swarthmore’s goalkeeper Sofie Aird ’27 did, in fact, receive the Centennial Conference Defensive Player of the Week award for her work on Saturday.
CW: A little bit more on the goal: how were you feeling right in the lead-up to it, when you cut back? Then right after? It’s got to feel pretty good to score the game-winner against Hopkins.
CK: It felt pretty good. Sometimes I feel like I know I’m gonna score; it’s just a matter of how and when. So it was kind of that thing. When I saw [Aminah] looking at me, I was like, ‘Here it is.’ At that point I honestly didn’t think about it — I knew what I had to do. I guess that’s just the flow state.
CW: I have some sources that tell me your parents like to rep your heritage and bring a Greek flag to every game. Thoughts on that?
CK: My parents are the best. It’s a little embarrassing sometimes, but I honestly see it more on film or in photos and stuff. Obviously my heritage is a big part of who I am. I have a little Greek flag on my cleats now too. Even my number switched this year; I had been wanting to be #34 for a while. I was #34 in high school, but also my favorite basketball player is Giannis Antetokounmpo. Greek Freak, number 34, that’s my guy.
CW: Is there any game coming up the rest of the season you’re particularly looking forward to or got pinned on the calendar?
CK: I think every conference matchup is good and gives me something to look forward to. Our biggest challenge will be the variable of being on the road for some of these games. Some of our more challenging conference games will be away at Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, and maybe McDaniel.
CW: What’s your ideal off-day look like?
CK: Definitely going with the team to eat somewhere. We frequent Jersey Mike’s, but also sometimes feel a little fancier and go somewhere in Media or Philly. But a lot of the time, especially when we have off-days on the weekends, it’s sitting on the couch watching football, the Premier League, or whatever’s on. We call it ‘recovery-maxing.’
CW: What’s something not soccer-related that you’d say you’re better than 99% of the population at?
CK: This sounds nerdy, but I’m a linguistics major, so I study how language works. It has definitely improved my ability to pick up a language. I think if my entire team sat down and had to learn a new language from scratch, I’d probably do the best.
CW: What’s your hottest take about campus?
CK: Sci Cafe is better than Kohlberg. A lot of people think that for coffee, [Kohlberg’s] where it’s at. But Sci has all of the iced tea varieties. Mango iced tea, peach iced tea … You can only get the raspberry at Kohlberg.
CW: Is there currently a TV show or podcast you’ve been binging?
CK: My housemates and I down at Crum Ledge have been watching The Righteous Gemstones. It’s pretty funny; we make a lot of references to that.
CW: What is a pet peeve of yours?
CK: When people abbreviate, but they put the apostrophe after the number, or use quotation marks instead of an apostrophe. Like there’s nothing happening there. I always shake my head when I see that.
