Sy Bean

Women's Soccer Aiming for 9th Straight League Title in 2025

By Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

A decade of dominance. That’s what’s on the line for a Pacific Lutheran University women’s soccer team that has finished atop the Northwest Conference standings every season since 2016.

Last fall, the Lutes hoisted their eighth straight conference title before advancing to the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament. Pacific Lutheran outscored its opponents 40-16 over the course of the season, racking up 10 shutouts and finishing the year with a 16-2-4 overall record and a 14-0-2 mark in NWC play— PLU’s best conference record in program history. The Lutes punched a ticket to the postseason for seventh time since 2016, downing Maryville College 1-0 before falling in the second round to host Emory University in Atlanta.

PLU continued to be a gritty opponent at home, owning a 7-0-3 record at East Field last fall while boasting a 31-3-4 record at home since the fall 2021 campaign.

With that success it’s no surprise the team’s goals remain the same, despite losing several key players to graduation.

Our expectation remains unchanged— to win our ninth title. We know every journey is different. Our record is zero and zero, but our vision to be another great PLU soccer team has never changed.

We lost a lot of good players over the last three years. I feel like we also have some very good players in our program that haven’t gotten opportunities yet until now. Which is why we had the theme in the spring of ‘dark horse.' No one has seen them play yet but us, and now they’re going to get their turn to be in the spotlight.

6-time NWC Coach of the Year Seth Spidahl

2025 Team Roster

Pacific Lutheran graduated four of its six First Team All-Conference players from a season ago, including NWC Offensive Player of the Year and USC All-American Hannah Cecil and All-Region players Julia Causbie and Kayden Hulquist. Those three plus First Team All-Leaguer Lily Dose accounted for 21 of the team’s 40 goals and 22 of the squad’s 29 assists last fall.

Headlining the returners is reigning NWC Defensive Player of the Year Bella Hanna and First Team All-League goalkeeper Abby Winkler. A Linfield University transfer, Hanna hit the ground running, playing in all but 55 of the 1,980 minutes possible last season. The senior from Lakewood, Washington added a spark offensively with eight goals and one assist with five of those eight being game winners.

A Portland, Oregon native, Abby Winkler started all 22 games and had 10 clean sheets to her name. The All-League honoree boasted a 0.73 goals against average with 74 saves on the year, going the distance in 21 of the 22 games in 2024. Shoring up the backline is Katelyn McDougal, a Second Team All-Leaguer from Wilsonville, Oregon that started every game last fall.

“Our returning strength in terms of accomplishments is our defense with Bella and Abby. Both are captains and have provided great leadership and great stability. Katelyn is another player who was All-Conference last year who was providing great leadership and stability so far. We know we’ll be good defensively and we’ll get saves.”

Bolstering the already stout defense will be returners Paige Alamanza, Joslyn Kruse, Tia Schwetz, and Jaden Saucelo.

“All of them had roles and played last year, but their roles are going to increase this year.”

Kruse saw the most action of the bunch, with the Olympia, Washington native clocking into 10 games last fall.

We have to continue to work on goals and possession and how we’re going to score. We have a lot of work to do but at the end of the day, if you can defend well, all you need is one goal to win, and we want more than that. But I do think we’re going to be a hard team to score on and we will do well defensively.

In addition to Winkler, Spidahl is happy with the returning depth at goalkeeper that also includes Abby Goetz and Mia Speir.

In the midfield, PLU returns a solid core with Lyla Merte, Liv Olson, and Kelen Betts. All three played in at least 20 games with Merte and Olson both finding the back of the net in 2024.

The Lute offense has plenty of roles to fill but will look to Kyleigh Archer, Carmen Kiewert, Kiana Gutierrez, Olivia Boehm, Ally Tattar, and Zoe Markquart to replace the lost firepower.

These are some of our attacking players that we feel like it’s their turn to step up.

Boehm is the most notable of the bunch, netting four goals last fall, including two bangers in a 3-2 road upset of nationally-ranked Johns Hopkins University. Responsible for two game winners and three total goals, Tattar is back for a senior campaign, playing in 20 games last season.

Gutierrez had one goal and two assists last fall with Kiewert adding a goal and an assist. Archer and Markquart both got valuable experience, appearing in eight and 16 games, respectively.

Sumner, Washington native Payton Martinson looks to add some pop after a big spring season after transferring from Division II Western Oregon University.

2024 Season Statistics

There’s a lot of new faces that I think can do well, and this just goes back to our theme. It’s their time now, it’s their turn.

We’re impressed with the freshman class’s preparation. They almost all passed the fitness test upon arrival. Taylor Thomas shows bright attacking potential while Marie Piho has already earned a traveling spot with her Lily Dose-like style in the midfield.

Olivia Gruginski, Hadiah Reid, Sydney Bonds, and transfer Sophie Avery round out a talented group. While it’s naturally challenging to break into a team with 11 seniors and numerous juniors, this class shows tremendous promise for the future.

PLU got an early jump to the preseason, getting extra training days leading up to an international trip to Spain.

“This was our fourth international trip. We’ve seen significant benefits from the extended preseason. The additional three weeks of training and competitive matches in Spain have allowed for a more measured approach to preparation, avoiding the usual rush of a two week preseason. Now our focus is on maintaining freshness and health throughout the season and through periodized training.”

PLU opens the season on the road against a pair of Texas heavyweights before hosting a pair of California schools that both have NCAA playoff aspirations.

We deliberately schedule tough opponents early to prepare for conference play. We prefer facing adversity early to help us identify and address areas for improvement before conference play begins.

The Lutes kick off the 2025 slate on Friday against the University of Saint Thomas.

2025 Women's Soccer Schedule