Junior Marilee Karinshak dribbles the ball in a win over Greenville. (Anna Calvo | Student Life)

After their first 10 games of the 2024 season, the No. 1 Washington University women’s soccer team was flying high. The Bears, coming off a 7-0 thrashing of Greenville University, were 10-0-1, having outscored opponents 44-3. When the Bears lined up to take on the No. 13 Emory University Eagles in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 5, however, they entered with a blank slate.

That’s because Emory was the Bears’ first opponent in the University Athletic Association (UAA),  a conference whose eight teams had started the season with a combined record of 60 wins, 13 ties, and just five losses. Most importantly, all eight started with a record of 0-0 in conference play.

On Saturday, WashU passed their first conference test, reminding the league why they’re the defending conference champions. Though the Eagles put up a fight, the Bears clawed their way to a 2-1 victory. 

“You want to start 1-0, and I think it kind of sets the tone a little bit of ‘oh, we’re in the win column already, not everyone is,’” head coach Jim Conlon said after the match.

Less than 24 hours later, WashU played against Piedmont University, a non-conference opponent who the Bears had defeated 8-0 last fall. This time, the Bears won 9-0, their largest margin of victory since a 13-0 win over Principia College in 2016.

In the first five minutes of the first game, both WashU and Emory hit the back of the net, but the referee waved off both team’s goals for offsides, keeping the score tied at 0 early on. 

36 minutes in, first-year Olivia Clemons received the ball near the center circle, split two Emory defenders as she sprinted towards the goal, and unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that nestled into the bottom left corner of the Emory goal. This time, the Bears strike counted, and Clemons had her 11th goal of the season, a conference high. 

In the 75th minute, after nearly 40 minutes of back-and-forth soccer, WashU finally got a much-needed insurance goal. After senior Gaelen Clayton’s cross was fumbled by the Eagles’ goalkeeper, sophomore Madison Foley was in the right place to tap it home to double WashU’s lead. Foley, who missed much of last season with an injury, has now started three straight games for the Bears and recorded goals in all three of them.

“I think the second goal is always big because you have a little bit of a buffer…Madi Foley [was] spot on there on a little bit of a bobble from their goalkeeper. While a lot of those turn in to be harmless, Madi made a great run and was able to capitalize on an opportunity that presented itself,” Conlon said.

Seven minutes later, however, the Eagles brought the contest within one goal when a strike from outside of the box from Kaitlyn Nimmer, Emory’s leading scorer, beat WashU’s All-American goalkeeper, graduate student Sidney Conner.

Just two minutes later, the Eagles came inches away from leveling the score at two when a long-range shot ricocheted off the crossbar and the follow-up on the rebound missed just wide of the net. That would be Emory’s last major opportunity, as the Bears held firm for the last five minutes to clinch the win and a 1-0 start to conference play.

“At the end of the day, we just need to be calm, take a deep breath, play what we needed to do to finish out that game,” Conlon said. “Ultimately, we did, but they came at as hard for sure…That four or five minute span was definitely Emory running downhill at us.”

Sophomore Allie Goulding scored her first career goal in the 9-0 win over Piedmont. (Anna Calvo | Student Life)

The next day, the Bears returned to the field after less than 24 hours of rest. Though the back-to-back game days pose challenges for a team, Conlon said it helps prepare them for the NCAA tournament at the end of the season.

“That’s the way the NCAA tournament is set up. So, if we’re fortunate enough to make that, I think you got to be ready for that, so that’s half the battle…I thought we were able to handle the travel, the hotel, the recovery, the day trip, almost two hours up to Piedmont to play them. And so I thought we did a great job in preparation.”

15 minutes in, Foley opened the scoring with her second goal in two days, and the Bears never looked back. Senior Sara Giannotti scored her first two goals of the season, and senior Meryl McKenna, junior Kaci Karl, first-year Cami Colpitts, junior Marilee Karinshak, sophomore Allie Goulding, and Clemons all added their names to the score sheet. 

In the win, some members of the Bears squad who have seen limited playing time this season played prominent roles. 

“We’ve got some women that put in a great deal of effort every day at practice. So if you get them in a game and they’re game ready, they show how good they are,” Conlon said. “I thought Marilee Karinshak had a great day on the field. We asked [graduate student] Sam McKibben to play a new position, she did a great job. And obviously the combined shut out between [first-year goalkeeper Suzie] Green in her first college start with [sophomore goalkeeper] Charlotte Shapiro was a great effort for us.”

With two more wins under their belt, WashU will continue conference play in Massachusetts against No. 21 Brandeis University on Oct. 11. The Bears will look to keep the momentum flowing as they chase their 17th UAA title.