The Bears celebrate after a win against Illinois Wesleyan. (Anna Calvo | Student Life)

Forty-seven minutes into the first half of play, graduate student Ally Hackett lined up to take a penalty kick. The ball bounced off the hand of the Brandeis University goalkeeper and into the bottom left corner of the goal, putting the No. 1 Washington University women’s soccer team a 1-0 lead against No. 23 Brandeis. The Bears would go on to win by that score, bringing them to a 2-0 record in University Athletic Association (UAA) play this season. 

WashU, which has played Brandeis each year since 2007, has not lost to the Judges since a 1-0 loss in 2015.

“I think you go one game at a time,” head coach Jim Conlon said about the win. “You know that every game is going to be very good in the UAA. So, just coming into Boston, having to go on the road, [and] deal with the travel, and then get a win was really good. [I’m] so excited to get today’s win and couple that with last week’s win [to] put us at 2-0.”

The win marks WashU’s 13th win and 10th clean sheet of the season. The Bears backline was led by sophomore goalkeeper Charlotte Shapiro, who made her first start for WashU, playing all 90 minutes and recording one save in the 85th minute after a deep shot sailed towards the net. Graduate student Sidney Conner missed the game due to a WashU school program.

After missing her first year due to injury, Shapiro has played 142 minutes and recorded three saves this season. Conlon credited Shapiro’s contributions to the team’s success in keeping their 10th clean sheet. He said that her work ethic coming back from last year’s injury has been a key to her success this season.

“We know she’s a talented keeper, and so she has worked really hard in her rehab and has been working extremely diligently thus far this fall in getting her craft back. And so for her to get the nod, coupled in with her hard work, she’s ready to do a job,” he said. “[I’m] just excited that we can put multiple keepers in the net and keep clean sheets.”

Hackett, who was an All-American in 2023 and has been a stalwart of the Bears’ defense, is no stranger to penalty kicks. In the 2023 NCAA Tournament, Hackett took the penalty kicks that propelled the Bears to their dramatic quarterfinal victory over the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and final-four victory over Messiah University.

Despite being a defender, Hackett is the team’s fifth-leading scorer this season with four goals, most of which have come off of set-pieces or penalty kicks.

“We’ve got a couple [of] things that we talked about in practice,” Conlon said. “We don’t know what situations will play themselves out. Ally [taking a penalty kick] is one of the scenarios that we can take a PK. And so it showed up today. She just kept up and took it. She understood the situation and was able to capitalize on that target.”

The Bears dominated offensively, outshooting Brandeis 18 to seven and recording six corner kicks to the Judges’ two. 

First-year Olivia Clemons, who leads WashU in scoring with 12 goals, paced the team with five shots and was fouled to earn the Bears penalty kicks. Junior Grace Ehlert, who is the team’s second-highest scorer, recorded three shots.

With the win, the Bears remain undefeated in the UAA — one of the most competitive conferences in Division III with seven of eight teams nationally ranked.

While the undefeated Bears have 14 games behind them and only five left to play in the regular season, it will be the toughest test for the reigning UAA Champions on the road to the NCAA tournament in late November. In the upcoming month, WashU will face off against four nationally ranked opponents, including No. 4 Carnegie Mellon University and No. 11 Case Western Reserve University. The Bears continue UAA play at home next weekend, taking on No. 17 New York University on Oct. 19 at 11:00 a.m.