Every so often, a headline stops you in your tracks, the kind that makes the box score you were just scrolling through feel suddenly trivial. Saturday’s private‑plane crash in upstate New York was one of those moments. Six people gone in an instant, including 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year and former MIT soccer captain Karenna Groff.

For anyone who follows women's college soccer, Groff wasn’t just another name on an honors list. She was the walking, talking proof that “student‑athlete” can actually mean both halves of the phrase.

Why Karenna’s Story Hit So Hard

Groff’s trophy case at MIT was ridiculous — second all‑time in goals and points, two‑time All‑American, and the NCAA Woman of the Year. Yet her teammates will tell you, the stat she really cared about was being the team mom. “MIT soccer is my family,” she said when she accepted the big award, and nobody rolled their eyes because they knew she meant it.

Off the field, she was somehow even busier. She knocked out both a bachelor’s and a master’s in biological engineering at MIT, no small feat. During the pandemic, she co-founded openPPE to help get better masks to hospital workers. And somehow, she still found time to finish her first year in NYU’s highly competitive neurosurgery program — with residency lined up for this summer.

Around MIT, the running joke was that Karenna needed a 30‑hour day. Coach Martin Desmarais simply called her “a force of nature.”

A Family Built on Overachievement

The part that really twists the knife is that Groff’s brilliance wasn’t an outlier at the dinner table — it was the norm.

• Dr. Michael Groff, her dad, was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, the executive medical director of neurosciences at Rochester Regional Health, and — tragically relevant — a licensed pilot who’d been flying since he was 16.

• Dr. Joy Saini, her mom, founded Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness after immigrating from India and carving out a reputation as one of the region’s top pelvic surgeons.

• Jared Groff, Karenna’s younger brother, had just finished up at Swarthmore, splitting time between the economics classroom and the men’s hoops roster while weighing law‑school offers.

• Alexia Couyutas Duarte, Jared’s partner, was already stamped for Harvard Law this fall.

If you’re sensing a theme of scary intelligence, you’re not alone. Family friend Cam Peddie put it simply:

“Some of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

James Santoro and the Future That Never Got a Chance

Then there was James Santoro, Karenna’s boyfriend since freshman orientation at MIT. He was an investment associate at Silver Point Capital, a former lacrosse midfielder. His parents say he’d already picked out a ring and planned to propose over the Fourth of July.

One line from John and Lisa Santoro’s statement really stuck with me:

“Our son loved big and lived bigger. He found his match in Karenna.” 

What We Know About the Crash

The family’s twin‑engine Beechcraft King Air left Westchester County Airport a little after noon, headed for a birthday celebration and Passover gathering near Albany. Shortly before touchdown, Michael radioed that he’d “missed the approach” and needed another pass. Air‑traffic control fired back a low‑altitude warning — standard procedure — but got no response.

Minutes later, the plane disappeared off radar and slammed nose‑first into a muddy farm field outside Copake, roughly 10 miles shy of Columbia County Airport. Early NTSB reports say the King Air was intact on descent, indicating no mid‑air breakup, but it was coming down fast. Investigators are digging into deteriorating weather in the valley and Michael’s instrument‑rating logbook. A preliminary report is expected within a month; the full findings could take up to two years.

A Community That Suddenly Feels Smaller

MIT’s athletics department kept it simple and heartfelt with a tweet: “There are no words.” NYU’s Grossman School called Karenna “a dynamo whose curiosity filled the room,” which pretty much sums it up. Back in Weston, where the Groff kids went to school, the district stepped in to support students still trying to wrap their heads around what happened.

And then there’s Anika Groff, a high‑school senior who lost her entire immediate family. Just typing that is gut‑wrenching. Anika was Karenna’s younger sister, and the daughter of Michael and Joy. She was the only one in the family not on the plane that day, having stayed behind instead of joining them for the weekend trip. 

A GoFundMe launched by neighbors cleared six figures in 24 hours, proof that when someone special is taken too soon, people rally.

What Comes Next

The NTSB will sift through engine data and cockpit audio, trying to pinpoint whether weather, equipment, or simple human error turned a routine hop into a nightmare. Answers won’t bring anyone back, but they might prevent the next family from receiving that same knock on the door.

In the meantime, MIT plans to retire Groff’s No. 10 jersey at its fall alumni game. Swarthmore is adding a memorial patch to next season’s basketball uniforms. And if you wander into the Grossman School’s neurosurgery lounge, you’ll find Karenna’s white coat draped over a chair, exactly where she left it after her last shift.

Final Takeaway

Sports are supposed to be our escape, the place where bad days get washed away by a buzzer‑beater or a walk‑off. But every so often real life checks in and reminds us the scoreboard isn’t the only thing that matters.

Karenna Groff and the five people who meant the world to her were the kind of overachievers who make the rest of us step our game up — whether that game is soccer, surgery, or simply being a better person.

We’ll follow the investigation, read the updates, and try to make sense of it all. But for today, maybe just text your people, hug whoever’s nearby, and remember that even the brightest stars don’t get an endless shot clock.