ALLY SEEVERS/THE CREIGHTONIAN
Head coach Jimmy Walker and fifth-year goalkeeper Kailey Hall embrace after a 3-1 win over the DePaul Blue Demons. The Bluejays were ultimately eliminated from the BIG EAST Tournament.
After a 3-1 win over DePaul on Saturday, Creighton women’s soccer finished the season tied for third in the Big East standings. The Bluejays still missed the conference tournament, undone by a three-way tiebreaker with Marquette and Seton Hall.
Only the top four teams in the Big East qualify for the tournament. Because Creighton lost its head-to-head matchups against both Marquette and Seton Hall, the Bluejays finished fifth in the final standings, just outside the tournament field.
Despite missing the postseason, Creighton recorded its best conference finish since tying for second in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2011. The team finished the season with an 8-7-3 overall record and a 4-4-2 mark in conference play, improving on last season’s 7-8-4 record.
Head coach Jimmy Walker said the team made improvements throughout the season, although he wished the progress had come sooner.
“This group’s been nothing short of amazing this last month of the season, [but] it took us a little bit too long to figure it out this year,” Walker said.
Saturday’s match opened with an early goal from DePaul freshman Katelyn Haiser, who scored her seventh of the season in the eighth minute. Haiser received a through ball from Jericho Frigon and chipped it over junior goalkeeper Morgan Paley to give the Blue Demons a 1-0 lead.
The Bluejays evened the score in the 37th minute after a long pass from junior Macy Felton was headed off the crossbar by freshman Lorel Stringer. Junior Taylor Yablonski collected the rebound and found the back of the net for her second goal of the season, tying the match at 1-1.
“We talked about just leaving it all out there,” junior Anna Bragg said. “It was the last game [at] Morrison, just pushing it.”
Creighton took the lead in the 57th minute when Bragg converted on a corner kick. Sophomore Olivia Sides delivered the ball into the box, where Bragg finished for her fourth goal of the season.
“[She’s] the model for everybody on how hard to work. She wears her heart on her sleeve, [is] the hardest-working kid out there … great leader, great captain,” Walker said of Bragg.
The Bluejays added an insurance goal in the 82nd minute, less than two minutes after DePaul received a red card. Freshman Gabby Wagenfuhr finished a sequence of passes from sophomore Sarah Hyde and Bragg to extend Creighton’s lead to 3-1.
Creighton finished with a 20-7 advantage in shots and a 6-3 edge in corner kicks. Paley recorded three saves in the victory, her seventh win of the season.
“It was a really professional, disciplined performance,” Walker said.
Bragg’s performance earned additional recognition the following week when she was named BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 9. The Omaha native recorded a career-high three points against DePaul, finishing with a goal and an assist.
Bragg assisted on Wagenfuhr’s insurance goal, recording her second assist of the season. The honor marked her second career Big East weekly award and made her the first Creighton player to earn Offensive Player of the Week recognition since Ariana Mondiri in September 2025.
While the Bluejays were unable to reach the tournament, Walker said the team continued to respond to adversity throughout the season, including injuries and changes to the lineup.
“This is a team that’s had a lot of adversity and a lot of injuries this year,” Walker said. “But this group sticks together … players coming off the bench did a good job. They never gave up, even if they were just in for five or 10 minutes. They made an impact on the field.”
Olivia Duray, a senior forward, was named to the Second Team All-BIG EAST, while sophomore defender Olivia Sides earned Third Team honors when the conference announced its postseason awards Nov. 10.
In her second season with the Bluejays, Duray led the team with 11 points and five goals, adding one assist. She started 17 of Creighton’s 18 matches and played 1,138 minutes. Sides started all 17 matches she appeared in, recording a team-high four assists and one goal while playing 1,471 minutes.
Despite falling just short of the BIG EAST Tournament, Creighton closed the season with its best conference finish in more than a decade. For a team that took time to find its rhythm, the late-season improvement provided a foundation to build on heading into next year.