The Danforth Campus saw personnel changes: meeting a new athletic director and saying goodbye to the women’s basketball coach of 31 years.

Lizzy Crist, a 2017 graduate of Washington University, is the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year.

Lizzy Crist is the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year.

How do you replace Division III’s best player and still compete for a championship? That’s the question head coach Jim Conlon and the Washington University women’s soccer team are trying to figure out.

Lizzy Crist is the UAA nominee for the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

For the second year in a row, the Washington University women’s soccer team has made it to the NCAA Division III tournament Final Four.

The Washington University women’s soccer team will play in the Final Four for the second time in two years after two tight victories this past weekend. The No. 8-ranked Bears defeated No. 10 Hardin-Simmons University (HSU) in penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw on Saturday, and the following day pulled out 1-0 win over No. 2 Trinity University.

After years of sustained success—winning four conference championships since 2011, with a combined 104-16-6 record in that time period and an appearance in the NCAA tournament finals last season—the Washington University women’s soccer team has one more box to check off: the national championship.

After making it to the national championship in 2015 and earning a No. 8 national billing in the last weekend of this regular season, the Washington University women’s soccer team was expected to make a statement as the team hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament at Francis Field this weekend. And they did.

The Washington University women’s soccer team scored the lone goal in overtime to defeat No. 8 University of Chicago 1-0 and claim the conference title for the second year in a row.