Top Lute Moments of 2024-2025

August 30, 2025 — Homewood Field in Baltimore, Md.

Olivia Boehm scored twice in the span of 40-seconds, powering the Lutes to a 3-2 upset of 17th-ranked Johns Hopkins University in the season opener. That victory set the stage for another big run for the juggernaut PLU women’s soccer team, clinching the program’s eighth consecutive NWC title on Senior Day on November 3.

PLU’s success continued into the postseason with a Hannah Cecil goal lifting the Lutes to a 1-0 win over Maryville College in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament before falling 1-0 to 23rd-ranked and host Emory University in the second round in Atlanta.

The Lutes tied a school record for wins in conference play, ending the season with a 16-2-4 overall record and a 14-0-2 mark in NWC action.

October 14, 2024 — OGA Golf Course in Woodburn, Ore.

Two Lutes finished inside the top 10 as the PLU men’s golf squad logged a fourth place finish at the NWC Fall Classic— one of the conference’s three flagship events during the year. 

Marcus Otto finished sixth overall and just two strokes shy of the top three, carding a two-round tally of 141. Otto opened the tourney by shooting a 71 and was even better during round two, shaving off a stroke with a two-under par 70. Koen Solis was tied for eighth with a 143 (70-73).

PLU shot a 582 (290-292) as a team, enjoying a razor thin one stroke edge over in-state rival Whitworth University. 

November 2, 2024 — Oak Knoll Golf Course in Independence, Ore.

The PLU women’s cross country team peaked at the right time this fall, with eight of the squad’s 10 runners collecting a personal best time at the 2024 NWC Championships.

Anna Iverson led the way, finishing 21st overall in a personal best effort of 23:09.4 while Sal Mattivi navigated the 6,000-meter course in a personal best 23:11.6 to place 22nd overall. 

The Lutes also received personal best efforts from Zoey Diviney, Jessalyn Robles, Victoria Lindley, Natalie Moran-Padilla, Rachel Rosario, and Sophia Czar.

Pacific Lutheran earned 168 points in the team standings, securing seven place and enjoying a four-point edge over Pacific University.

November 3, 2024 — East Field in Tacoma, Wash.

Title defended. The Lutes made it a memorable senior day with a 4-0 shelling of second-place George Fox University, wrapping up the NWC crown with two games to spare.

Craig Johnson put the Lutes up 1-0 in the 13th minute with Connor O’Brien adding a goal just three minutes before halftime. The second half saw insurance goals from both Trevor Thompson (68th minute) and Owen Bliskis (80th minute) to win the conference title for the second consecutive year and earn a bid to the NCAA Championships for the sixth straight season. 

Goalscorers Johnson and Thompson finished the year as two of the greatest offensive threats in program history. Johnson holds the school record in assists (37) and is second in both goals (52) and points (141) while Thompson is the record holder in goals (55), points (143), and fourth in assists (23).

November 15, 2025 — Whitworth Fieldhouse in Spokane, Wash.

The PLU volleyball team dropped the opening set of the night before ripping off three straight to down crosstown nemesis University of Puget Sound 3-1 (22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-19) and advance to the NWC Tournament finals for the second consecutive season.

The second seeded Lutes had four players with double digit kills , including Julissa Pernsteiner who had the match clinching kill in the fourth set. Ayre Takamoto set up the offense with 41 assists while Makenna Jackson had 20 digs to anchor the defense.

PLU ended the season with three All-Conference players, including Takamoto securing First Team honors as a first-year. Joining her as All-League players were Jackson and Pernsteiner.

November 16, 2024 — Milo McIver State Park in Estacada, Ore.

Owen Ladinig saved his best race for when it mattered most, clocking a season-best time at the NCAA Division III West Region Championships to lead the Lutes.

Ladinig finished 27th overall after touring the 8,000-meter course in 24:58.7, earning All-Region accolades for the third consecutive season.

But it wasn’t just Ladinig that came up big during the regional meet with Daniel Zimmer and Corban Piper both recording 8K personal best times. 

November 16, 2024 — Sparks Stadium in Puyallup, Wash.

Two long scoring drives in the fourth quarter sealed the deal as the Lute football team downed crosstown nemesis University of Puget Sound 34-21 to notch the program’s best season since 2014. The Lutes (7-3, 5-2 NWC) weathered a wild opening quarter on Senior Day, ending the game with 486 yards of total offense. Jase Ellamar, Noah Palitz, and Jacob Schuh all caught touchdown passes while Darius Chaffin and Raysen Motoyama both found the endzone on the ground in the 100th edition of the storied crosstown rivalry. 

Kalen Davis-White was a beast defensively with 13 total tackles, including 11 solo takedowns along with an interception, helping the Lutes retain “The Trophy” for the fourth consecutive year.

January 3, 2025 — Whitworth Fieldhouse in Spokane, Wash.

Ben Tellez dropped 23 points as the Lute men’s basketball squad opened Northwest Conference play with a 75-73 road upset of 14th-ranked and previously undefeated Whitworth University. 

Neither team led by more than seven in a nailbiter that features 12 lead changes and 12 ties. A Tellez three with 1:57 remaining in the game broke a 69-69 deadlock and put the visiting Lutes ahead for good. Pacific Lutheran would go on to finish second in the league standings, punching a ticket to the NWC Tournament with NWC Coach of the Year Chad Murray guiding the squad to a winning campaign for the sixth straight season— PLU’s longest stretch of winning campaigns since Ed Anderson led the Lutes to winning years from 1976 to 1982. 

January 11, 2025 — Olson Gymnasium in Tacoma, Wash.

Lockdown defense in the second quarter was the winning formula for the Lute women’s basketball team, earning a hard fought 53-44 home victory of George Fox University.

Brooke Samura came off the bench and led the team with 15 points but it was the Lutes’ efforts at the other end of the court that turned heads. PLU held the visiting Bruins to just two points in the second quarter as GFU misfired on 12 of its 13 shots in the 10-minute period. It was the fewest points PLU has allowed in a quarter against an NCAA opponent since the game moved from halves to quarters prior to the 2015-2016 season. 

The Lutes had arguably one of the best defenses in the NWC all season, finishing the year as the top rebounding team in the conference with 39.8 rebounds per game. 

January 18, 2025 — PLU Pool in Tacoma, Wash.

It was a senior day sendoff to remember with the PLU men’s swimming squad winning six events to down George Fox University 104-80 in the last home dual meet of the year.

Tyler Tanaka stole the show, winning three of those six events. Tanaka sat atop the podium in the 200-yard individual medley (2:02.89), the 500-yard freestyle (5:07.83), and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.56). 

Seniors Devin Stanley and Na’inoa Loo would rack up a pair of relay victories, powering the Lutes to wins in both the 400-yard medley relay (3:42.32), and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:25.16).

Tanaka and Stanley would both finish the season strong as All-Conference selections based on their performances at the 2025 NWC Championships. 

February 16, 2025 — East Field in Tacoma, Wash.

It was a day of firsts for the PLU women’s lacrosse squad. Playing its first ever game as a varsity program, first-year Taylee Alldredge etched her name in the record books, scoring the program’s first ever goal just over four minutes into the game.

When the dust settled, Alldredge had six total goals as the Lutes earned their first ever victory, a 12-6 triumph over Eastern Oregon University. Goalkeeper Kassie Diller made nine saves and had an impressive .600 save percentage in the win over the Mountaineers, earning NWC Defensive Player of the Week.

Alldredge would be a scoring machine all season, finishing with 26 goals during the 2025 campaign en route to Honorable Mention All-Conference honors while Diller was twice named the league’s defensive player of the week. 

February 16, 2025 — King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.

The Lutes capped off the four-day NWC Championships on a high note, placing sixth overall while Emma Gassman tallied a pair of top four finishes. The Lutes racked up 281 points at the event, owning a 52-point margin over seventh-place George Fox. 

Gassman was runner-up in the 200-yard backstroke, touching the wall in 2:07.59 while placing fourth in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:12.95. The sophomore finished the four-day meet as a three-time All-Conference selection while Riley Maher, Scout Hawkins, and Melissa Zuniga also earned All-Conference recognition. That included Maher landing First Team All-NWC accolades in two events.

March 3, 2025 — Hospital in Houston, Texas

Lutes save lives. Carson Burke had a series of his lifetime the previous two days before hopping on a flight to Houston to donate lifesaving stem cells to an anonymous blood cancer patient in need.

Burke had three home runs in PLU’s series victory over Lewis & Clark College, including going three-for-five with four RBIs in the series clinching win on March 2. PLU trailed 7-0 in the game but a Burke home run put the Lutes in front in the bottom of the seventh inning in a 10-7 victory.

But Burke proved to be a hero beyond the diamond, undergoing a peripheral blood stem cell extraction procedure the next day, becoming the fourth Lute to donate stem cells to a patient in need after signing up on the National Marrow Donor Program.

Patients with blood cancers have only a 30 percent chance of being a match with a family member which means most rely on an anonymous donor to get the needed lifesaving transplant. 

March 8, 2025 — American Lake in Lakewood, Wash.

The Lutes set the tone in the first regatta of the spring, winning two races on their home course at the PLU Invitational. The PLU varsity eight boat opened the regatta with a 27-second win over conference rival Pacific University while the second varsity eight finished ahead of Lewis & Clark College in a pair of races.

PLU’s varsity eight was named the NWC Crew of the Week for its efforts, one of three Crew of the Week honors won by the Lute women’s rowing squad.

The Lutes would continue to get faster as the year wore on, ending the regular season as the top team in the Pacific Region. PLU battled the juggernauts of the East Coast during spring break and returned in late May, finishing eighth in the nation at the 2025 NCAA Division III Championships in West Windsor, New Jersey. It was PLU’s first trip to nationals since 2022 with Matt Oclander earning Pacific Region Coach of the Year and his staff winning Pacific Region Coaching Staff of the Year. 

March 8, 2025 — DiamondPlex Field in Winter Haven, Fla.

The Lute pitching staff was unhittable at the Spring Games with Rachel Treves and Paige Wilson both throwing a no-hitter on the same day.

Treves and Wilson combined for 14 strikeouts on a day PLU outhit its two opponents 10-0, making history as the first time in program history that two no-hitters were thrown on the same day.

Treves struck out five and walked just one to open the day with an 8-0 victory over Widener University while Wilson had nine strikeouts and a pair of walks in an 8-0 drubbing of Gordon College. Bri Sarae was the common denominator in both games, catching both no-hitters. 

Wilson would go on to toss two more no-no’s during the season— blanking Willamette University 11-0 on April 5 and Whitworth University 10-0 on April 27.

March 18, 2025 — Husky Ballpark in Seattle

In one of the biggest David versus Goliath battles of the year, the PLU baseball team upset the mighty Washington Huskies 3-1 in a midweek non-conference tilt. 

Ethan Keintz belted a solo home run early in the game while lights out pitching from Chris Moreno, Kamryn Swartz, and Matthew Sherwood paved the way for the win, believed to be the first D3 victory over a Power 4 program since 2022. 

The Lutes finished the season with victories against teams from all three NCAA divisions, while owning transitive wins over all eight teams participating at the Division I Men’s College World Series. 

April 7 — Hospital in Seattle, Wash.

The Lutes struck gold twice in one year. Being the odds— football student-athlete Cameron Amoroso became the second Lute this year and the fifth Lute since the NMDP Drive began to match and successfully donate to a cancer patient in need.

A wide receiver, Amoroso is the third football player to get the call, a remarkable feat considering donors only have a one-in-200 chance of being a match. 

PLU’s outsized success stems from the donor drive that was started in the spring of 2022 as a joint venture between Head Football Coach Brant McAdams and Head Baseball Coach Nolan Soete. The event has been held ever since with over 700 PLU students registering as donors over the past four years. 

April 13, 2025 — Tumwater Valley Golf Course in Tumwater, Wash.

The Lute women’s golf squad tallied a third place finish at the South Puget Sound Community College Invitational thanks to a strong showing from both Emily Alicea and Abby Matelski. 

Alicea finished third overall, shooting an 82 during the opening round and an 81 the following day to finish with a 163. Matelski was one spot back and one stroke back with a 164 (82-82). Alicea was the top finishing Division III student-athlete at the tournament and a few days later was tabbed the NWC Golfer of the Week.

As a team, the Lutes finished third overall, enjoying a 15-stroke advantage on crosstown rival Puget Sound.

April 26, 2025 — Griswold Stadium in Portland, Ore.

Three All-Conference honors. Two conference titles. One school record and NWC Outstanding Track Athlete honors. That’s the resume for Ryan Stracke after a banner performance at the two-day NWC Men’s Track & Field Championships hosted by Lewis & Clark College. 

Stracke dominated the field, winning the 10,000-meters in a school record of 30:11.56, earning the title for the second time in three seasons with teammate Owen Ladinig placing second in 30:32.88. The senior would wrap up a win in the 5,000-meters in 14:36.36 the following day, and was fourth in the 1,500-meters to win the Outstanding Track Athlete honor.

Stracke’s teammate Kai Sorensen won the 800-meters during the two-day meet while Darius Chaffin punched a ticket to the NCAA Championships and finished the season with an 18th place finish at the national meet in the javelin. 

April 27, 2025 — Griswold Stadium in Portland, Ore.

Kyleigh Archer and Madison Downey were electric in the triple jump, securing the top two spots for the second consecutive season at the 2025 NWC Track & Field Championships.

The duo helped the PLU women’s track & field team to a sixth place finish as a team, finishing just 2.5 points shy of fourth place.

Archer won the NWC title after unleashing a jump of 38 feet, ¼ inch with 2024 NWC Champion Downey runner-up with a mark of 36’ 10 ½”. The sophomores combined to score 18 points in the event with Downey also logging a third place finish in the long jump the previous day.

Archer and Downey were among the five Lutes to secure All-Conference honors, joining Addisen Hering, Ki Neir, and Eva Wirth.