St. Louis, Mo. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse soccer team fell 2-1 in double overtime to Simpson College (Iowa) Saturday night in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III First Round. The game was played at Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) Francis Olympic Field.
 
The Eagles finish their season at 16-4-2 while the Storm improve to 15-2-3. UWL now leads the all-time series, 5-3-1. The Eagles earned a 3-1 victory over the Storm in the 2023 NCAA Division III Second Round.
 
Simpson (Iowa) advances to face host WashU (Mo.) in the second round Sunday, November 17 at 7 p.m. WashU (Mo.) earned a 2-0 victory over DePauw University (Ind.) in Saturday's first round.
 
UWL and Simpson (Iowa) were scoreless at halftime on Saturday. Both teams had six shots in the opening half with UWL recording two on goal and Simpson (Iowa) four. The Eagles had six corner kicks and the Storm two in the first 45:00.
 
The Storm took a 1-0 lead at 49:02 on Ally Hoffa's goal. Hoffa had a pair of shots in the opening 1:23 of the first half before scoring the game's first goal. Simpson (Iowa) maintained its lead until UWL's Jessica Stewart scored at 73:01 off an Ellie Behnke assist to make it 1-1.
 
The teams went into overtime after UWL's Chelsea Gale was stopped by Simpson (Iowa) goalkeeper Meredith Downs on a penalty kick at 88:18.
 
Cassie Nash had a pair of shots in the first overtime for Simpson (Iowa) and Hoffa's shot at 99:14 was turned away from UWL's Erelyn Apel. Nash needed only :29 to register the game-winning goal at 100:29.
 
UWL finished with 13 shots on Saturday, including eight on goal. Alexis McMahon had four shots with two goal. Sophie Pope recorded both of her shots on goal. The Eagles finished with eight corner kicks. Apel recorded five saves.
 
Simpson (Iowa) finished with 18 shots with seven on goal. Hoffa, Nash and Hailey Kowzan each had four shots with two on goal. The Storm had eight corner kicks. Downs finished with seven shots in the game.

The Eagles earned an automatic bid to the 2024 national championships after capturing the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship (presented by Culver's) with a 2-1 victory over UW-Platteville on Saturday, November 9 at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.

UWL made its seventh appearance (2015, 2017-18, 2021-24) in school history in the national championships this season, all coming under head coach Jason Murphy. The Eagles are now 11-5-4 in NCAA Division III Championship history with Saturday's loss.  Murphy, in his 11th season as UWL's head coach, has guided the Eagles to six (2015, 2017-18, 2022-24) WIAC regular-season titles and five (2017-18, 2022-24) tournament crowns.
 
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