TACOMA, Wash. — The Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team looks to maintain its grip atop the Northwest Conference this fall, with its sights set on the program's sixth-consecutive NWC crown.
 
Last season, an inexperienced Lute team ripped off 10 straight wins to open the season and closed the year with an 18-3 overall record and a 14-2 mark in league action. PLU was a perfect 10-0 at home on East Field and made the program's fourth trip to the NCAA Division III Championships, falling 1-0 to Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in the opening round. 
 
"Last year our phrase was 'a baby shark is still a shark.' This year it's 'we need to swim like a shark. Swim like a shark to make others look like goldfish.' We certainly have experience coming back and the group has gone through it. We have a few losses with our graduating senior class and we lost Sawyer to an injury but we still have a lot of good players with experience," said Head Coach Seth Spidahl who enters his 11th season at the helm with an impressive 132-33-28 overall record. 
 
"The players word is 'beyond.' Beyond where we've finished in the past which is the first or second round (of the NCAA Tournament). We realize we have to do the work to get another chance at that. So I'm excited about our potential. I'm also realistic that we have a long way to go to get there. Our vision is to always be a great team. We're 0-0 so I don't know how great we're going to be but excited to get started on Thursday."
 
Defense was a hallmark of the Lutes last season and arguably nobody made more of an impact than First Team All-American and NWC Defensive Player of the Year Ella Merte. Merte and the Lutes backline allowed just seven goals over the course of the 21 game season, posting 14 clean sheets. 
 
"Defense is always the foundation of the house. It's where it starts. We're very blessed to have two great center backs with Ella and Joelle. We expect to defend well every game and everyone on our team has to defend. But the confidence we have with that back four and Shaylin in goal, gives us the confidence to really go out an attack because we have a solid line behind them."
 
Defensive backmate Ellie Reardon returns for her senior season, securing Second Team All-NWC last fall along with All-Region accolades. Reardon's impact was felt on both sides of the pitch, netting an NWC-leading nine assists on the season and finishing third on the team in points with 11. Also returning is junior Joelle Buck who played in every game last fall. 
 
Between the posts, Shaylin Cesar is back for her senior campaign. Cesar made five starts last fall, collecting three shutouts with a miniscule 0.33 goals against average. 
 
"Shaylin did great in goal last year once she was healthy. We have two great freshman in Lily Singleton and Abby Winkler. It's our strongest goalkeeping group that we've had in my time here from top to bottom. We have five real good ones and shout out to (goalkeeper coach) Nathan Salveson, he's done a great job."
 
Among the returning firepower for the Lutes is reigning NWC Freshman of the Year Hannah Cecil. Cecil wrapped up her debut season as the Lutes leader in both goals (seven) and points (15). Fellow first-year forward Julia Causbie was second on the team in goals (five) and points (13) while netting Second Team All-NWC accolades.
 
"We've got people that can score handfuls of goals. Our goal, pun intended, is to score two goals per game at least because something weird can happen and we don't want one goal to be the only thing we have. So that's our goal each game and I feel like we have the potential to do that."
 
Second Team All-NWC and All-Region midfielder Lily Dose and Honorable Mention All-NWC Alyssa Leong return after both scoring four goals last fall along with Ashlee Gormley and Vera Panescu-Reich who both contributed four goals and two assists. 
 
Also back and healthy is Meghan Michels. The 2019 NWC Freshman of the Year scored 12 goals and had five assists as a first-year before battling injuries the past two seasons. 
 
"I'm excited. Meghan's looked really good in preseason. She's come back healthy and looks like her old self from fall 2019."
 
In addition to a strong nucleus of returners, the Lutes have a strong crop of first years looking to make a big impact along with a few Lutes who have made big strides in the offseason. 
 
"Katelyn McDougal's had a big impact as a first-year center back. She's got some training to do but I think she'll do well. Olivia Boehm, has done well. We played a lot of players last year so everybody's continuing to move forward but I'm looking for some good minutes from Riley Shaver as a junior and I think she's made some good strides."
 
While not yet in mid-season form, the Lutes had a jump on training this year, capitalizing on extra practices thanks to a foreign tour to Ireland and the United Kingdom in early August. 
 
"At the Division III level it's always a rush in preseason. It's never enough time from a soccer periodization prospective to get players truly as fit as they need to be to open up on Sept. 1 so the fact that we had three weeks before we took off, a 10-day tour, we got to train an extra 12-15 times and played three games, that certainly helps take away some of the rush during preseason and we can ease into the season better."
 
The Lutes have a tough test in its non-conference slate, beginning this weekend with Piedmont University and Emory University coming to East Field. Head Coach Seth Spidahl knows it's the best way to test the team and get them ready for the rugged conference slate that begins on Sept. 17.
 
"I want us to be nationally competitive and we realize that most of the Division III powerhouses are in the Midwest and East Coast. I realize that a lot of times we need to go to them but I want PLU to be in those conversations. And when we do we want to represent our entire conference and region that there's some pretty good programs here in the Pacific Northwest."
 
PLU kicks off the season tomorrow against Piedmont with kickoff slated for 2:30 p.m.
 
"One thing I've learned is its always about what we do in conference that really matters and we want our preseason to be tough to get us ready for that. That's not going to happen if we don't challenge ourselves."