Following a national championship for the Point Loma Nazarene University women’s soccer team, expectations were high for the rest of fall sports seasons in 2024. The Sea Lions didn’t disappoint. Each fall team finished with an exceptional record; or in the case of the cross country team, showed significant improvement and won a tournament.
No team had greater expectations than PLNU’s women’s soccer team. Last year’s national title-winning team brought back most of its roster; they were aware of the perception they had.
“Once you win one [national championship], the expectation is that you’ll do it again,” said fifth-year defender and 2023-24 PacWest Female Athlete of the Year, Emma Thrapp. “And I think that if you play at this level … no matter what division it is, if you’re playing a sport in college, the end goal is a national championship and if you’re not playing for that, you probably aren’t a super competitive team.”
The women’s soccer team finished with the exact same record as last season, 17-3-1. This year featured highlights such as winning the first ever PacWest Tournament, putting up 10 shutouts in an eleven-game stretch and having six players featured on the D2CCA All-West Region Team, a tie for the program record. They made it to the NCAA Tournament, beat Simon Fraser and Hawaii Hilo in the first two rounds, and fell to Cal Poly Pomona in the West Region Championship.
Thrapp said part of the reason they sustained their success was because of the team chemistry and not letting external voices get to them. The team has a standard that she doesn’t see going away anytime soon.
“I think we are just trying to set the standard of, ‘we are a team who will be able to compete in the Sweet 16 year after year after year’; that’s an expectation and a standard that we’re trying to set,” Thrapp said. “We’ve done that so far and I know the team next year and in years to come will also do that.”
The men’s soccer team experienced one of its best seasons in program history as well. Finishing the season with a record of 11-4-3, they won the PacWest in the regular season before being upset in the PacWest Tournament by Fresno Pacific. After receiving an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, the men lost to Western Oregon in the first round to end their season.
2024 saw the men’s soccer team reach their highest ever ranking in the United Soccer Coaches rankings at No. 6, and also had six players make the D2CCA All-West Region Team, breaking the previous program record. Second-year midfielder Simon Sagal attributed much of the success to the buy-in of the team.
“I think the main thing that led to our success is we really bought into the style of play, our system,” Sagal said. “We’re losing a few important guys [next year] and that will be difficult to us but we’re keeping so many who are familiar with the system.”
Though they had one of the best seasons in program history, they’re left with a bit of a sour taste in their mouths, losing three of their last four games of the season. Sagal acknowledged that the team was successful, but he isn’t content with the results.
“Our takeaway is that we have a lot more to do and that we have a lot more to give,” Sagal said. “On paper, people look at our season and say it’s a successful year. For sure, there’s a lot to be proud of. We need to reflect on success and see how we got there. We’re always holding ourselves to that next higher standard. We want to win a regional title, we want to win a national championship.”
Among the most improved teams for PLNU is the cross country team. After a 2023 that ended in a fourth place finish in the PacWest Championships and 11th at the NCAA West Regional, this year’s squad finished third and seventh, respectively. Third-year runner Maddie Reeves broke the program record for the 6K and the team won the Cougar Challenge on Sept. 28 in San Marcos after not winning a tournament in 2023. Third-year runner Elizabeth Satterlee said the improvement has been gradual over the past three seasons that she’s been here.
“The biggest difference this year was gaining confidence as a team, and having a clear vision of what we wanted to accomplish,” Satterlee said via email. “This group of girls has steadily improved our place in the conference every year, and we placed the highest at Regionals for Point Loma since 2018.”
Reeves made All-PacWest first team and Satterlee made second team alongside third-year transfer student Zaila Smith. As for goals for next year, Reeves was straight to the point.
“I really want the momentum from this season to carry into the next,” Reeves said. “We want to win conference titles and make it into the national championships next season, so if we keep all that motivation from this season, we will shock a lot of people with what we can do.”
Perhaps the most impressive team of the fall season was the women’s volleyball team, who had their best season to date, finishing the season 26-2. In 26 matches, the team only lost 16 sets and had 16 shutouts. Fourth-year outside hitter Abigail Nua won PacWest Player of the Year and made All-PacWest first team for the third time in as many seasons. Five total PLNU players made all-PacWest first team or second team, including Nua and first-year outside hitter and PacWest Co-Freshman of the Year, Saren Rodgers. Head Volleyball Coach Jonathan Scott said Nua contains an inner drive that raises her above the competition.
“She just has a deeper level of competitive drive,” Scott said. “Most people think they’re competitive, but it can get deeper and deeper, and there’s not a lot who compete as hard as she does.”
PLNU women’s volleyball finished 19-1 in conference to secure the No. 4 seed in the West Region and for the first time ever, won a NCAA Tournament game in a “reverse sweep” of Central Washington. Their season ended in the West Regional Semifinal in a 3-1 loss to No. 10 ranked Cal Poly Pomona.
As for what needs to be carried over from this season to next, Scott spoke to the importance of how you bounce back from a loss.
“The big hope is that the returners will have had both that taste of success in the postseason but probably even more important, that taste of really difficult defeat in the postseason, letting both of those things fuel the really long offseason training,” Scott said.
Luke Mallery