Women’s soccer looks to GPAC dominance, keeps nationals on the horizon

The women’s soccer team practices in the Bulldog Stadium.

By Kai Olbrich

Sports Editor

Photo credit: Kai Olbrich

Concordia’s women’s soccer team is ready to take on the Great Plains Athletic Conference after a 2024 season during which they graced the second round of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national tournament.

The Bulldogs went 8-3 in the GPAC last season, which was enough for a runner-up finish. Coach Nick Smith wants to focus on the conference schedule and not get caught up too early in the nationals talk.

“Day by day is sort of what we’re operating with right now. We don’t really, as a team right now, talk about things like nationals,” Smith said. “I think the big focus for us and the big area that we’ve not had the success that we want is in GPAC. If you take care of stuff in GPAC, nationals also takes care of itself.”

Senior midfielder Savannah Andrews echoed Smith’s sentiment and is excited to play against Hastings after losing to them in the GPAC regular season and tournament in 2024.

“I am definitely looking forward to our annual rematch against Hastings,” Andrews said. “I think we have a really good team this year with tons of depth. I think we can really push for a GPAC title if we really want to.”

Smith did, however, note the desire to be considered a regional power and emphasized that regularly making it to nationals is an important step in that process.

“I think getting yourself to that point [national qualification] is a difficult step to take. I think maintaining yourself at that level is harder still, and so for us, we want to consistently be a regional power,” Smith said. “And I think to do that, you need to put yourself in the national tournament on routine.”

He said the team, with its returning players, has an opportunity for continued success but maybe is “feeling a little bit more confident in those bigger moments this year to try and take a further step still.”

The Bulldogs are returning their top two offensive contributors from 2024, senior Kierstynn Garner and Andrews. Garner, a forward, has led the team in scoring each of the past three seasons and sits at a career tally of 49 goals and 18 assists. Midfielder Andrews has produced 22 goals and eight assists during her time at Concordia so far.

Smith believes that his senior class will play a big role in the 2025 season and hopes that they have a desire to leave the program on a historic note.

“It’s a senior class that’s got a lot of minutes under their belt, and a lot of them had minutes early on as freshmen and sophomores as well. So you include Niah [Kirchner], Elena [Ruiz], you include Taylor [Slaymaker], a fifth year for us, [Hannah] Kile, all on top of K [Kierstynn Garner] and Sav [Savannah Andrews],” Smith said. “And so what that means for us is we’re, I think, really experienced. We’ve got a lot of experience throughout the spine of the team from back to front, and hopefully, they will be good examples for our younger players to sort of follow through.”