They wish it was August right now. That’s the tenor Head Coach Nick Smith felt as the spring training season concluded for the Concordia University, Nebraska Women’s Soccer program. The practices felt as competitive as ever – even during the spring – as an impressive mix of talent and experience returned to the Bulldog Stadium turf. Nine of the 11 starters from last season’s national tournament run are back in the fold. It could be argued that the program has never been in a better position to succeed heading into the summer months.
As Smith enters his third season at the helm of Bulldog Women’s Soccer, he isn’t tempering the expectations. He’s embracing them with the idea that an experienced group will be ready to hit the ground running mentally in ways perhaps it wasn’t one year ago.
“The hardest thing for a team is to take that step and do something the program’s never done before,” Smith said. “To lose in the first round last year is sort of what would have been expected of us. To knock down that door and do it in the fashion we did, we proved to ourselves that we belong at that level. It’s an immense building block for our confidence. Everyone comes back. We have a lot of returners from the group that were able to do that. We don’t have any questions about what our expectations are, because we’ve proven where we should be. The expectations within the group this fall are going to be lofty. We have a motivated group that wants to continue to rewrite the record books for the women’s soccer program.”
Not far removed from the very first national tournament win in the program’s history, Concordia focused on incremental improvement this spring. As Smith put it, there was no reason to attempt to reinvent the wheel with so many accomplished returners in place. The team spent the first six or seven weeks of the spring semester mostly indoors with an emphasis on strength training and futsal (for individual improvement with the ball). Warmer weather brought about outdoor training and scrimmage games, including the opportunity to play at NCAA Division I Drake University. Throughout the entirety of the semester, Smith also emphasized continued relationship building.
The spring roster included 25 total players (18 healthy field players), a large number considering the absence of the graduating seniors. Seven of last season’s eight All-GPAC honorees returned, including three first teamers: Kierstynn Garner, Niah Kirchner and Taylor Slaymaker. If anything, the Bulldogs seemed to pick up where they left off in the fall – and maybe even raise their performance level. Smith came away from the scrimmage at Drake believing his team had put together one of the best efforts he’s seen since arriving at Concordia.
“We showed a willingness to do some stuff we had never really shown before,” Smith said. “We ended up losing that game, but every indication coming out of that game was really positive … There was a lot of individual growth over the course of this spring. In particular, I think some of our younger players started to feel comfortable at the level. The mindset we have as a group leaving the spring is really night and day from what we had at the end of last spring. I think it went really well. I’m excited for what’s next.”
Specific scores and statistics from spring scrimmages are not to be reported, but Smith can tell you that his squad found the back of the net a whole lot in matchups with the likes of Augustana University (S.D.), Doane, Dordt, Kansas Wesleyan and Nebraska Wesleyan. Every single opponent is well aware of the Kearney, Neb., native Garner, who has accumulated 49 goals over her first three collegiate seasons. If opponents put a premium on shutting down Garner, Smith is confident that the Bulldogs will have plenty of other ways to put away goals. Of the 52 goals scored by Concordia last season, 44 were delivered by players who return this fall (including eight from Savannah Andrews).
“I don’t need KG to increase her total,” Smith said. “What we need is for the rest of the group to follow through and find what their potential is. If teams want to put two or three players on ‘K’, good. We have enough quality within our group that if you leave someone open, we’re going to score goals. This spring, there was some real growth that way. We had some players get more comfortable in front of the net. I also think we’re adding some players this fall that are natural goal scorers. I think we have the potential to score a lot of goals this fall.”
On the back end, the Bulldogs tightened up some early leaks during the 2024 season and became a strong defensive squad. The one All-GPAC departure is keeper Angela Banks, but Concordia likes the group it has at that position. The frontrunner to start at that spot is Augustana transfer Aaliyah Matthews, who enrolled at Concordia beginning with this spring semester. Matthews has three years of eligibility remaining. In a unique twist, Matthews even played against her former school this spring.
This spring, Matthews had an opportunity to learn what it’s like to play behind a back line that features center backs in Slaymaker and Triniti Rowe. Not only do the Bulldogs believe they will score more goals in 2025, they believe their opponents will score fewer goals.
“She’s been really good for the team,” Smith said of Matthews. “Getting here in the spring is so beneficial for the players. She got a whole semester to learn our style, which I think is a little bit different than where she was before. She’s also able to create relationships with the players on the team. She’s come in and has taken really well to our group. On top of Aaliyah Matthews coming in, we have Aliya Vidro and Grady Smith, who are the returning keepers from last year. Both of them have taken immense steps forward in the time they’ve been here.”
Matthews joins a program stocked with talent and a class of seniors-to-be that could go down as one of the best four-year groups in the program’s history. Garner and her fellow classmates will continue to set the tone as the fall season approaches.
Says Smith, “Some of the most competitive practices we’ve had since I’ve been here were this spring. That’s a really strange time for competitive practices to be at their peak. I think it’s because we have a senior class now that really leads by example. We have leadership through the spine of the team from front to back. They’re hungry for more. We got to do some really fun things this last fall, maybe some things that no one expected from us, particularly with the start to the fall we had. We also have some things we left on the table. I don’t believe this senior class has ever beaten Hastings. I know the senior class has never won a GPAC championship … I think they’re really motivated in ways I haven’t seen.”
The official 2025 Concordia Women’s Soccer schedule is public and can be found HERE. The Bulldogs are slated to kick off ’25 by hosting the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma on Aug. 21.