The past 12 months marked a banner year for the Washington University athletic department—not a championship banner, mind you, as the school’s national title drought extended to four years, but a year filled with exciting wins, landmark performances and school records galore nonetheless.

Relive the year in Wash. U. sports as Student Life counts down the top 10 athletic moments from 2015.

10. Men’s soccer upsets Wheaton

It did not even take until Labor Day for the men’s soccer team to make a statement. Having missed out on the NCAA tournament the past two years, the team was eager to prove its chops this season, and the Bears took advantage of an early opportunity on the road against No. 2 Wheaton College.

Wash. U. squandered a 2-0 lead in the game, surrendering a penalty kick just before the hour mark and an equalizer in the 87th minute. But four minutes into overtime, freshman Kyle Perez loosed a 35-yard rocket into the upper corner of the net to give the Bears the signature victory.

Wash. U. had wins over highly ranked opponents in other sports in 2015, but perhaps no win was more important in setting the team up for the rest of its schedule, as the Bears eventually qualified for the tournament and made the second round before losing in penalty kicks to DePauw University.

9. Baseball duo sets school records

A pair of baseball Bears ended their illustrious careers perched atop a number of categories on Wash. U.’s all-time leaderboard. Zack Kessinger finished with the school’s lead in career games played and runs batted in and ranked second in total hits—behind only teammate Chris Lowery, who in 2015 became just the fourth Wash. U. baseball player to earn first-team All-American honors.

In his senior season, Lowery ranked second in Division III for both hits and runs batted in, spinning that performance into player of the year honors for both the University Athletic Association and the Central Region.

With Kessinger and Lowery providing pop in the middle of the Bears’ lineup, the team tied a franchise record 34 wins.

Brian Benton | Student Life

A Washington University fan holds a sign in support of the women’s basketball team during its 63-56 victory against the University of Chicago in the Field House on Feb. 28, 2015. On Senior Day, the Bears won their second straight University Athletic Association title and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

8. Women’s basketball beats UChicago for the conference title

In 2014, the University Athletic Association title came easy for women’s basketball, as Wash. U. won the conference by a whopping four games. But the Bears’ attempt for a repeat championship came down to the final game of the regular season, when they hosted the University of Chicago, down a game in the standings, for a de facto UAA title game. In a close contest, the Bears’ three senior starters—Melissa Gilkey, Alyssa Johanson and Maddy Scheppers—each scored 14 points, a fitting result on Senior Day, and Wash. U. took the game, 63-56, and a share of the conference title along with it.

7. And so does men’s indoor track and field

That same weekend, Wash. U. and UChicago waged battle for conference supremacy on the track, too, and the contest at the UAA Indoor Championships came down to the last event.

Entering the 1,600-meter relay, the final race of the meet, UChicago led the Bears by just one point, meaning a win for either team in the event would clinch an overall team title, as well. And by a 0.85-second margin, the Bears crossed the finish line just in front of the Maroons and snatched away the team trophy, their fifth in six seasons.

6. Stahlhuth and Zastrow win national awards

Across the Athletic Complex, Wash. U. boasted 44 All-American honorees in 2015, but two Bears—a coach and a player—reached the next step on the national awards scene. In the spring, Kelly Stahlhuth won Division III Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year honors after leading the Bears to an 18-6 record (11-6 against ranked opponents) and an appearance in the NCAA tournament’s second round.

Following Stahlhuth’s lead in the fall semester was volleyball senior Allison Zastrow, who became the eighth player in the team’s history, and first since 2002, to be named Division III player of the year. In her first full season as setter, Zastrow ranked second in the country in both total assists and assists per set and helmed a Wash. U. offense that led the nation in kills per set. There’s more to come from volleyball further down the list.

5. Football’s offense rewrites the record book

After suffering through an inconsistent 2014 that resulted in the football team’s second losing season since 1992, the Bears’ traditionally conventional offense underwent a rapid evolution this season, and the new hurry-up spread attack was designed to score points in bunches. There were some growing pains with the new approach—see the 11 interceptions junior quarterback J.J. Tomlin tossed in two October losses—but when the offense clicked, it put up numbers the likes of which Wash. U. hadn’t seen before.

Tomlin set the single-season school record for passing yards, touchdowns, completions, attempts and completion percentage and, in a game against Hendrix College in November, tallied single-game records for yards (498) and completions (41).

At times, the Francis Field scoreboard could barely keep up with all the home team’s touchdowns. In one game, the Bears put up 70 points; overall, they averaged 37.2 points per game, easily the best mark ever for the football program, and totaled over 1,000 yards more than any previous team in school history.

4. Volleyball springs comeback victory against Emory

For the first time in the program’s history, the Wash. U. volleyball team blew a two-set lead against a conference opponent. That was Oct. 17 against Emory University. Three weeks later, the Bears returned the favor in the UAA championship match, battling back from a two-set deficit to knock off the then-No. 1 Eagles and to win the team’s first conference title in four years.

After winning the third set, Wash. U. fell behind early in the fourth and trailed by as much as seven points before gradually closing the gap. A 5-0 run late in the set gave the Bears their first lead, and a back-row kill from senior Nkiru Udenze evened the match at two sets apiece.

In the fifth set, the Bears played error-free volleyball while forcing Emory into more errors than kills, and Wash. U. stole the UAA trophy and national No. 1 ranking from their biggest rival.

3. Spring teams excel at nationals

After school let out in May, the sports didn’t stop, and a trio of teams posted third-place finishes on the national stage.

Women’s track and field achieved its best-ever team performance, as three Bear individuals and one relay team earned top-three finishes at nationals. On the track, then-senior Lucy Cheadle won the title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, then-sophomore Daisy Ogede set school records in runner-up showings in the 100 and 200 sprints, and the 1,600 relay team placed third. Gilkey, moving from the basketball court to the field, matched her teammates from the thrower’s circle, besting her own school record in the javelin to finish third.

Women’s golf also placed a program-best third in the championship tournament. In the last season for longtime head coach Sean Curtis. The Bears finished just four strokes behind Wittenberg University in second place and 22 strokes behind winner Williams College in the four-day event.

Last up was a third-place result for the men’s tennis team, which reached its seventh Final Four in eight seasons. The team tied the school record for wins in a season (22) and defeated conference rivals Emory (in the quarterfinals) and UChicago (in the third-place match) to secure its final standing.

2. Cheadle, Dalton win individual national titles

In her last semester at Wash. U., Lucy Cheadle capped off her career as the most decorated runner in school history with a pair of national championships. In indoor track, Cheadle won the 5,000-meter final for her fourth top-six finish in the event, and in the outdoor season, she repeated as champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Overall, Cheadle finished her career with three individual national championships, one team championship and 13 All-American nods.

Joining Cheadle on the winner’s podium was then-junior swimmer Reed Dalton, who set a Division III record in the 100-yard butterfly (46.97 seconds) at last year’s championship meet. Dalton became the fifth swimmer in school history to win a national title.

Joachim Vaturi | Student Life

Junior Hannah Rosenberg goes for a shot during the Dec. 4 semifinal game against Messiah College. Rosenberg’s penalty kick goal keyed the Bears to a 3-2 victory, sending them to Saturday’s championship game.

1. Women’s soccer upsets Messiah in national semifinals

This one is the only item on the list to have happened within the past month, but do not think that recency bias has boosted its ranking. Rather, the women’s soccer team’s upset, come-from-behind victory against No. 1 Messiah College made the team’s first Final Four trip since 2009 a memorable one.

With five national championships in the past decade and a team this year that was the equal of its predecessors, Messiah was a juggernaut and the clear favorite among the four remaining teams in Kansas City, Mo. Entering the semifinal, the Falcons had outscored their opponents 100-3, and their star striker had outscored half the teams in Division III by herself.

And when Messiah hit the post and forced a diving save from Bears goalie Lizzy Crist in the game’s opening minutes, it seemed like the Falcons were set to continue their year-long—and decade-long—dominance.

The Falcons struck first with a goal just before halftime, but the Bears didn’t wilt, and in the 74th minute, junior Katie Chandler slotted a touch pass past Messiah’s goalkeeper to send the game to overtime. After regulation ended, Crist made a season’s worth of clutch saves in the span of half an hour: The junior keeper stonewalled Messiah’s leading scorer on a breakaway and saved three consecutive penalty kicks to keep Wash. U. alive.

In the shootout, the Bears’ sixth penalty taker, junior Hannah Rosenberg, lofted a shot into the upper corner, and Messiah responded with a ball that rose over the crossbar.

The Bears rushed midfield to celebrate, and though the weekend ended on a bitter note with a 1-0 loss to Williams College in the title game the next day, their semifinal win goes down as the top Wash. U. sports moment of the year.