Eleven months after Western Washington University women’s soccer won its second NCAA Division II National Championship, the Vikings suffered a loss that halted their season short of the national tournament for the first time since 2011.
The Vikings beat Simon Fraser twice in the regular season but were eliminated by the Red Leafs, 2-1, on Saturday, Nov. 11 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship — a team that had more than twice their conference losses.
After an up-and-down run that couldn’t compare to their monumental 2022 season, the Vikings will bank on a deep recruiting class in the 2024 season.
Headlined by Emily and Audrey Holdridge, a dynamic twin pair from Ferndale High School, the program will once again have its sights set on competing for the national championship next season.
Western will lose two captains in goalkeeper Claire Henninger and defender Katie Watt — and eight seniors overall — but Vikings head coach Travis Connell thinks the model of leadership they set will be passed down and others can pick up the slack.
“They’ve had the benefit of playing and working in a system where we’ve already had amazing leaders that have shown them a great way to do that,” he added.
This year, the Vikings opened with a difficult non-league schedule. They went 2-1-2 in those five matches, losing to Concordia University Irvine and the Colorado School of Mines. Both teams went on to the national tournament.
“We played an incredibly difficult schedule; We were the toughest schedule in the entire region this year. And we played a lot of games against great teams,” Connell said.
It took time for Western’s six new players to get comfortable with each other in the season’s rigorous start. The team also had seven seniors depart at the end of last season.
One of the key additions to Western’s team this season was transfer junior Gracen Crosby. The Spokane native played her first two seasons at Division I Georgia State University.
“That’s a lot of what makes a soccer team successful, is just the cohesion on and off the field,” said Crosby, who tied with freshman midfielder Mie Cairns for second on the team in goals (3).
After a slow start in September, Crosby felt like the team finally started to build good chemistry. Once they found a rhythm, the Vikings played like they had the season before. In October, they went undefeated with a record of 7-0-1.
From there, the Vikings went 2-2 to end the regular season. In the GNAC tourney, Western defeated Western Oregon 2-1 but lost by the same score to Simon Fraser in the championship. If the Vikings had won, they would have automatically qualified for the tournament. Instead, Simon Fraser got the bid.
The Vikings had been almost unbeatable at home over the past two seasons with a combined record of 16-2-2. Away games told a different story this season — the Vikings won four out of 10 games away from Harrington Field. Plus, an injury and low-scoring efforts hindered the team’s chances of a repeat season.
In 2022, the Vikings scored 46 times and averaged 1.84 goals per game. This season, they scored just 25 goals (1.19 per game).
Western also played this season without senior winger Estera Levinte, who redshirted this season due to an injury. In 2022, she had 15 goal contributions, led the GNAC in assists (eight) and was the NCAA Division II Tournament MVP.
Her absence was hard on the other players. Opposite winger sophomore Morgan Manalili — the 2022 GNAC Freshman of the Year — had 10 goals and five assists last season, and her point total led the conference (25). This season, she netted six goals and had three assists.
Forward Claire Potter also was involved in fewer goals. In her 2022 freshman season, she had five goals and four assists. This year, she registered two goals and one assist.
“Estera would be a player to draw two, three players to her, and she would be able to keep the ball on her foot and get balls in the box. And I would always be there to finish them,” Manalili said.
After a successful year, Manalili found herself living up to Levinte’s legacy with teams planning their defensive game plan against her.
“She faced way more challenging defenses,” Connell said. “Good coaches always had a plan for Morgan — we were constantly talking about how are we going to make it easier for her because she’s facing double teams and schemes every time she plays.”
