On November 13, St. Ambrose’s women’s soccer team became the 2024 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) champions. The win made it back-to-back conference championships for the Bees.

“This year’s win definitely meant so much to me because it was my best friends and I’s last year playing together. We wanted the win more than ever and knew that we had to go out leaving an impact on the field for not only ourselves, but our younger teammates that would be following in our footsteps,” described senior midfielder Taylor Desplinter.

The story of both the Bees’ championship runs are quite similar. In 2023, the Bees dropped their first three games of the year before winning 15 of their next 16 games en route to the conference championship. This year, the Bees won 10 straight games after starting the year with five wins and five losses.

Like many schools their size, the Bees spent the early part of the season playing much tougher competition than usual. The Bees dropped games to both Northern Iowa and North Dakota State, both division one programs.

In addition, the Bees dropped their first two conference games this year. With these results, the team was well aware of the tough road ahead of them.

“Although we were playing top teams such as UNI and Marian, we knew something needed to change, whether that be a tactical or an attitude change,” said senior goalkeeper Grace Kuchar.

Desplinter also acknowledged the challenges from the start of the schedule.

“Getting into early season, we were playing very impressive teams, which was great for the experience, but hard on us physically and mentally. Obviously, starting out on a rough patch was not the most ideal situation for us, but we knew we had to improve and we knew we had to lean on our team chemistry to get us through the season,

“We weren’t at our best yet and had to commit to getting there,” Desplinter added.

One of those early season losses included a four to one loss to Olivet Nazarene, the Bees’ “biggest rival,” according to Desplinter. Despite taking six more shots than ONU, the Bees were still out-paced offensively.

_{ONU Goalkeeper Meegan Randall makes a diving stop (Photo courtesy of Sydnee Horstmann)}

“We were too timid at times which ended up costing us multiple goals,” explained Desplinter.

Both Desplinter and Kuchar pointed at the game against Holy Cross as the turning point in the season. Coming off wins against Judson and Indiana Northwest, the Bees defeated Holy Cross four to nothing. That win would make it three straight, and over the next month the Bees outscored their opponents 34 to zero.

During that run, the Bees clinched the one seed in the conference tournament, won the regular season conference title, and grabbed two easy wins in their first two conference tournament games. With only one game left to become repeat conference champions, the Bees had a familiar opponent making the trip to St. Vincent’s Athletic Complex. 

The conference championship game would give the Bees a second chance at a team who they had lost to earlier in the season: Olivet Nazarene. Not only was it a chance to right a wrong from earlier in the year and to become repeat CCAC champions, but it was also a chance to get a final statement win in a heated rivalry for the senior Bees.

_{Senior midfielder Kaitlyn Brunson passes the ball forward against Olivet Nazarene (Photo courtesy of Sydnee Horstmann)}

“We definitely prepared mentally way better to play them in the championship game. We knew how they played and knew we could beat them, we just had to come into the game with a better mindset,” said Kuchar.

Desplinter also spoke on the changes the team made heading into the championship revenge game. 

“ONU is always a tough game, but we wanted to win against them way more than anything this time around. Strategically, we knew that we could collapse on them in the middle of the field and do so with the pressure we gave,” described Desplinter.

This change in strategy and mentality helped lead the Bees to victory. Although they trailed one to nothing at halftime, the Bees roared back thanks to a pair of goals from senior forward Kendall Wendt to give them the win two to one. 

Desplinter and Kuchar described the emotions of becoming back-to-back champions against their biggest rival.

“This win feels different because we started off playing tough teams and facing some tough losses, yet we never lost our drive to win and came back to win the conference and the tournament again. It also feels different as a 5th year playing with my senior friends for the last time ever, we all had the mindset to play for each other,” said Kuchar.

“It meant so much more that we were capable of winning the conference championship and pursuing these goals after such a rough start. I am glad that my senior teammates and I went out with a bang,” added Desplinter.

_{Junior forward Jenna Horst handles the ball past an ONU defender (Photo courtesy of Sydnee Horstmann)}

The Bees had already clinched a spot in the national tournament after winning the CCAC regular season title. The Bees were able to win their opening matchup against Oakland City before their season ended with a loss to eighth ranked Spring Arbor out of Michigan.

Still, it is not only repeat conference championships for the Bees, but also repeat historic runs to win those championships. Next year, the Bees will have to replace a lot of production as they lose their top three goal scorers and assisters to graduation.