Ally Hackett gives Ella Koleno a hug as Cal Lutheran celebrate thier win. (Clara Richards | Student Life)

Soccer is a game of inches. At any moment, a bounce off the post, deflection off of an outstretched player’s body, or slightest touch on the ball can decide the outcome of a game, a season, or in the case of the Washington University women’s soccer team, a championship. In the biggest game of the Bears’ season, the bounces didn’t fall their way in the NCAA Division III national championship game against California Lutheran University.

In the 17th minute of the game, Cal Lutheran forward Isabella Veljacic curled a strike towards the goal from outside of the box. As the ball arced towards the net, it redirected off the crossbar, before deflecting off senior Sidney Conner, WashU’s all-American goalkeeper. With a leaping Conner suspended in mid-air, there was nothing she could do as the ball crossed the goal line and found the back of the net. 

The bounce proved decisive. Despite a resilient second-half effort that included control over the majority of possession, three shots, and five corner kicks, the Bears never put the ball in the back of the net. With their one goal, Cal Lutheran rode to their first-ever national title, becoming the first unranked team to achieve the feat.

The Bears, who were ranked second in the last United Soccer Coaches poll of the season, ended the season with an impressive 17-2-4 record alongside a national runner-up finish for just the third time in program history.

“It was a fantastic championship match, game of inches,” WashU head coach Jim Conlon said after the match. “Whether that’s first touches, passes, ricochets off the crossbar, I could not be more proud of our women.”

Sid Conner leaps for a save against a Cal Lutheran volley into the net in the second half. (Clara Richards | Student Life)

After Veljacic, who was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player, opened the scoring for the Regals, the Bears attempted to scrap their way back. As the first half wound down, the Bears accumulated momentum, and looked like they could equalize before the break. With the Regals taking a more conservative approach to defend their lead, the Bears took advantage of the space that opened up in the midfield but struggled to convert their possession into threatening scoring opportunities.

At halftime, the Bears altered their tactics, pushing more players into attacking roles to potentially generate a necessary spark.

“I think we just started to go to a different look in the second half that gave us a little bit more possession in the middle third of the field, which allowed us to open up the outer channels to maybe get some possession,” Conlon said about the second-half adjustment.

While the Bears appeared to be on the front foot after the mid-game break, the Cal Lutheran back line held firm. With 30 minutes remaining, the Bears had their best chance of the match. Junior midfielder Sara Giannotti, who stepped into an expanded role after an injury to junior Gaelen Clayton in Thursday’s semifinal match, received a pass from senior midfielder Tyler Wilson on the left wing in open space, a rarity against the tightly packed Cal Lutheran defense. From the edge of the box, she struck the ball with her left foot, but her shot ricocheted off the crossbar, and the score remained at 1-0.

13 minutes later, the Bears had another promising opportunity. After freshman midfielder Sophie Viscovich used fancy footwork to beat a defender on the left wing, she squared the ball to sophomore forward Grace Ehlert. Ehlert, who was crashing to the front post, redirected the ball towards the goal frame, but her shot missed just wide of the net.

Though the Bears kept pushing, they struggled to advance the ball into the box, with the exception of a multitude of crosses off of set pieces earned in the attacking half.

“[WashU] is well-coached, they got a great program to always be at the top of Division III, but I didn’t think they ever really got a lot of great chances,” Cal Lutheran head coach Frank Marino said after the match.

Ultimately, the Regals defense, which allowed just 0.52 goals per game all season long, held on for a 1-0 victory.

“We obviously tried to get the ball up the field in more of a direct fashion late in the match trying to find the equalizer, but we just couldn’t find it today,” Conlon said.

Though they failed to bring a second women’s soccer national championship back to WashU, the Bears had a season to remember in 2023. Led by Conner and second-team all-American defender Ally Hackett — who transferred to WashU as a graduate student after playing at UNC-Greensboro — the Bears had one of the most formidable defenses in the nation. They started the season with 15 straight shutouts, the best mark in college soccer, and gave up a mere nine goals all season, the fourth-lowest tally in Division III.

With a 4-1-2 conference record, the Bears earned their 16th University Athletic Association (UAA) title — and first since 2021 — in a nationally competitive conference that saw seven out of eight members make the NCAA tournament and win first-round matchups. They made an impressive run to their first Final Four since 2018, topping No. 11 University of Wisconsin – La Crosse in a thrilling penalty shootout victory after 110 minutes of back-and-forth action ended in a 4-4 draw. In the semifinals, they avenged last year’s season-ending loss to Messiah, topping the No. 5 Falcons in another shootout. 

Though the Bears’ season concluded with just their second loss of the year, WashU’s tournament performance was one for the ages, and three players — Conner, Hackett, and Ehlert — were named to the All-Tournament team.

This season, the Bears were led by an impressive class of seven seniors and three graduate students, five of whom — Conner, Hackett, midfielder Anna Viscovich, winger Kate Flynn, and defender Sarah Neltner — were consistent starters all season long. 

“They mean everything to us. They’ve shown us how this team runs, how we do everything,” Ehlert noted after the match. “We’re really gonna miss them, but are beyond grateful that they’ve paved the way and they’ve shown me and other underclassmen what WashU women’s soccer is about.”

According to Conlon, all seven seniors have a year of eligibility remaining, leaving the door open for potential returns. The coach added that Hackett and fellow graduate student Sam McKibben will also be returning for another year. Though they will inevitably have holes to fill, the Bears boast a strong core of underclassmen, including their three leading goal scorers — Ehlert, Clayton, who missed the championship match with an injury, and sophomore forward Ella Koleno.

Among the returning underclassmen, Sophie Viscovich played 61 minutes in the championship final. (Clara Richards | Student Life)

The returning players will have history to look to as they hang up the cleats on the 2023 season. After 2015, when the Bears beat Messiah but lost in the National Championship game, the squad rebounded to win the program’s only national title in the subsequent championship game.

“It takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get where we are. And I think that goes into our every day and that came out today. We’ve worked till the end, and I’m proud of us no matter what,” Hackett said after the game. “And today was just the beginning of next year.”

Read about the Bears’ season: 

Penalty-shootout heroics send women’s soccer to the National Championship game

The road to Salem: No. 2 women’s soccer’s path to the NCAA Final Four

“We knew it was coming”: Last-gasp goal and penalty shootout sends #2 women’s soccer to the Final Four