Daniel Kochen, Colin Link, Ethan Wirtschafter, and the Bears are headed to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2021. (Bri Nitsberg | Managing Photo Editor)

After missing the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, the WashU men’s soccer team is tournament-bound for the first time since 2021. WashU finished the season with a 13-3 record and a conference title, and the Bears are eager to compete with whoever the tournament throws at them. 

“We want to win it all,” junior midfielder Jake Whitehurst said Saturday, after the Bears defeated the No. 3 University of Chicago. “That was our goal coming into the season. We want to win it all.”

After an early season loss to Westminster College, the Bears rattled off ten wins in a row, establishing themselves as a team to watch in the University Athletic Association (UAA) and on a national stage. A key win over then-No. 2 Emory University on Oct. 26 catapulted WashU as high as second in the national rankings, a program record. Though a 1-0 loss to New York University on Nov. 1 put WashU’s UAA title chase in jeopardy, the Bears bounced back to beat rivals UChicago in a winner-takes-all match to clinch the conference championship. The UAA win punched WashU’s ticket to their first NCAA tournament since 2021 and provides the Bears with critical momentum heading into the postseason.

The Bears are far from the most experienced team in the tournament. No member of the Bears’ roster has tournament experience, and second-year head coach Andrew Bordelon has coached just two games in the D-III tourney. Still, the Bears look to make their season even more of a success with a deep tournament run. 

“We’re very excited about it, we feel like we’re one of the best teams in the country and obviously we have to continue to show that,” Bordelon said after the win over UChicago. 

This season, the Bears’ improved defensive line has been a key to the team’s success. Led by junior center back Quentin Gomez and junior goalkeeper Cal L’Hommedieu, the Bears have allowed less than one goal per game and have held opponents scoreless seven times. Gomez, who was named the UAA’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, however, will be suspended for the Bears’ first playoff game after receiving a red card against UChicago. Building off a towering performance in the final regular season game, defenders senior Nate Szpak and first-year Miles Newman will be expected to step up once again in the heart of WashU’s back line in Gomez’s absence. 

“Our philosophy doesn’t change and it is a great opportunity for others to step up,” Bordelon wrote to Student Life. “I am very confident of the players in that locker room.”

Up front, First Team All-UAA junior forward Ethan Wirtschafter leads the line for the Bears with a team-high 13 goals, while senior forward Zach Susee is a creative playmaker on the wing. With Susee’s status uncertain after missing the match against UChicago, the Bears will also look to Whitehurst and first-year forwards Daniel Kochen and Wole Adeoye to provide a spark in the postseason. Kochen, who won the UAA’s Rookie of the Year award, and Adeoye are part of a standout 14-man first-year class, which also features Newman and midfielders Jack Hayeems and Sebastian Valdes. In total, seven Bears – Gomez, Wirtschafter, L’Hommedieu, Kochen, Valdes, Hayeems, and sophomore wingback Quentin Wallace – placed on an All-UAA team this season.

The Bears will travel to Whitewater, Wisconsin, for the opening weekend. Given the strength of midwestern teams in D-III men’s soccer this season and the NCAA’s guidelines on travel in tournament scheduling, WashU and other Midwestern teams will be thrown into the deep end with competitive games against strong opponents early in the tournament. 

Some head coaches in the Midwest are frustrated with the bracket, which stacked some of the best teams in the nation in the Midwest while leaving many schools in the Northeast with relatively easy opening groups. 

“What happened with the NCAA D-III men’s soccer bracket is a joke to say the least,” Justin Oliver, head coach of No. 3-ranked St. Olaf College, wrote on X. “The Midwest region was just massively punished for having too many top NPI [Net Power Index] teams, and the NCAA didn’t want to travel teams.”

The NCAA uses NPI, a metric based on a team’s record and the strength of their opponents, to rank teams for the tournament. According to Oliver, WashU’s bracket of four has the best average NPI, with the teams averaging a ranking of 21st in the nation. The worst ranked group on average, based in Texas, has an average ranking of 100th. 

The Bears start their tournament Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, who finished with a 14-3-2 record in the competitive Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). The Warhawks are led by senior forward Cooper Re, who was named the WIAC’s Offensive Player of the Year after leading the conference with 16 goals. In net, WashU will have to beat first-year goalkeeper Austin Waite, the WIAC Goalkeeper of the Year. WashU and Whitewater played five common opponents this season, with both teams playing to a 4-1 record in those five games.

If the Bears win, they will face DePauw University or UChicago in the second round. After the Bears beat Chicago in a nailbiter to win the UAA last weekend, a rematch between the rivals would be one of the most anticipated games in the opening weekend of the tournament. The two teams have split their historical series with each side winning 10 games over the other, though the Bears have gotten the best of the Maroons each of the last two seasons. UChicago was ranked third in the most recent United Soccer Coaches poll, meaning that a potential second-round matchup with the Maroons would be a championship-quality matchup in the round of 32. 

“We are looking at one game at a time,” Bordelon wrote. “If the opportunity comes to play Chicago again, we will be well prepared.”

UChicago’s first-round opponents, DePauw University, enter the NCAA playoffs fresh off a championship in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) tournament. The Bears have played DePauw three times, with a 1-1-1 all-time record against the Tigers.

WashU men’s soccer is dancing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in four years, and while they are arguably the strongest team in their bracket, will not have an easy road to the second weekend. During the regular season, the Bears excelled when tested, going 4-0 against top-15 opponents. In the tournament, where any one loss spells the end of a team’s season, WashU will have to once again step up against some of the nation’s best.