A Lasting Legacy

The Cal Lutheran women’s soccer team preseason begins with a reading assignment.

Depending which class year they’re in, players read a book with inspirational lessons that can be applied to both sports and life, followed by discussion. First-year players, for example, read James Kerr’s Legacy, about the success behind a New Zealand rugby team.

One quote from Legacy seemed to take root this year, said women’s head coach Frank Marino: “Your role is to leave the jersey in a better place,” about the importance of leaving behind a legacy of excellence not just for yourself, but for teammates who will follow.

On Dec. 2, the Regals won the NCAA Division III National Championship for the first time in Cal Lutheran women’s soccer history, lifting the Cal Lutheran jersey to unprecedented heights and securing their legacy as one of the university’s most successful teams. Head coach Marino, along with assistant coaches Shannon Pennington ’97, MEd ’05, Brenton Frame, Chloe Montano and Tony Castro, were named the 2023 Division III Women’s National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches, as well as the 2023 NCAA Women’s Region Staff of the Year for Division III, Region X.

During a news conference after the championship game in Salem, Virginia, Isabella “Bella” Veljacic ’23, who scored the sole winning goal against Washington University St. Louis, and won Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the tournament, echoed Kerr’s line: “I hope that I left my jersey in a better place. …”

“I was so proud of her for saying that,” Marino said. “She didn’t just leave that jersey in a better place – she left it in the best place for future generations.”

Legacy and the other required-reading books “are really the foundation for what we’re trying to build in the team culture,” Marino said. “We read them every year, but this group really believed and lived it, which brought us to another level of family and togetherness.”

Isabella “Bella” Veljacic

“She scored the greatest goal in Cal Lutheran soccer history.” That’s how Cal Lutheran women’s soccer coach Frank Marino described Isabella “Bella” Veljacic at an on-campus event in December to celebrate the team’s win. He was referring to Veljacic’s successful goal in the first 17 minutes of the NCAA National Championship Division III match. It was the game’s only goal, and the winning one.

But Veljacic, of Monterey Park, California, is almost embarrassed by such praise and refuses to take sole credit.

“The goal was cool, but it was the team who won the championship and broke records,” she said. “That trumps everything.”

Veljacic, a fifth-year student in Cal Lutheran’s graduate program for business, earned an undergraduate degree in communications in May 2023. This year she was one of three captains on the women’s soccer team, along with Adriana Maroney and Jalynne Magana.

Veljacic said she’s “always been super competitive,” playing soccer since age 4. “I was the only one keeping score on the soccer field — and that’s when they didn’t even keep score,” she said, laughing.

Winning Outstanding Offensive Player of the NCAA tournament was a total surprise. “I didn’t even know they gave those awards,” she said. “There’s a photo of me when they announced it, and it’s the best picture I’ve seen. I have my hands over my mouth, and my teammates are all around me. Knowing I had their support meant everything.”

It almost goes without saying that this team had soccer talent galore. After a historic regular season, the Regals (19-1-6) defeated No. 2-ranked Washington University (17-2-4) 1-0, even without three of their top starting players, who were injured in the semifinal game: Avery West, SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year, and Adriana Maroney and Savana Durr. In the quarterfinals, they defeated unbeaten and top-ranked Christopher Newport University on penalty kicks.

In the championship match, it was truly a team effort: 20 of the 33 players had time on the field. The Regals limited Washington to three goal attempts, and goalie Kelsey Slaugh made all three saves.

But beyond physical skill, what defined the Regals, team members and coaches said, was the players’ close-knit bond, team spirit, selflessness, grit and unwavering support of each other.

Family Matters

Every player on the Regals team this year had 32 sisters.

“Out of all my five years, I will remember this team was extra family-oriented,” said Veljacic, a fifth-year student in Cal Lutheran’s MBA program. “We were super close, even with age differences from 17 to 23. Connecting with that age gap can be hard, but this year there was no disconnect. We all worked to know each other on a deeper level.”

At the beginning of the season, older players are paired with younger ones. “We called them our sisters,” Veljacic said. “It was a super special bond.” (She and the other fifth-year players also jokingly called themselves “grandmas.”)

Just like the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, the Regals don’t have “substitutes” or “reserves”: They have “game-changers.”

Eden Quiroz, a fifth-year from Newbury Park who won Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the tournament, transferred from a Division I school, the University of San Diego, after four years, and said “the environment they established allowed me to come into this team and feel like a family right away.”

Durr, a third-year who landed a penalty kick that helped the Regals reach the NCAA semifinals, also transferred from a Division I school, California State University, Northridge. When seeking a transfer school, Cal Lutheran stood out in part because it offered a sense of community.

“I didn’t feel like a stranger,” she said. “People wanted to get to know me. I’ve never had a team like this. Everyone wanted to play together, and you could see it on the field. Even when we didn’t play as well as we could, we always found a way to win. We were going to do this together, and every single player was important.”

Marino, too, emphasized the contributions and talent of each player throughout the season. “No matter who we put on the field, they took care of business,” he said.

Athletes and Academics

Cal Lutheran President Lori Varlotta, speaking to the team and supporters during an on-campus celebration in mid-December, said the players “represent the absolute best of California Lutheran University,” not only from an athletic perspective,” but also “when it comes to student success.” In addition to the team’s No. 1 national soccer status, she cited their overall group GPA of 3.4 and 93% student retention rate.

“You also represent the best of California Lutheran collegiality, teamwork, sportsmanship … values and community, and that makes me as proud as all of the other bests I’ve just talked about,” Varlotta said.

Veljacic said when she visited Cal Lutheran before enrolling as an undergraduate, “I imagined myself being here without being an athlete. That was a big factor. I chose it for both academics and soccer.”

Durr, who is majoring in sports management and was an intern with Angel City FC, an L.A.-based team in the National Women’s Soccer League, believes this year’s soccer season will be a plus on her future resume. “I was playing soccer, but I was also in school, being a student-athlete,” she said. “I put school first, and I know the effort it takes.”

‘All the Little Things’

Howard Davis, director of athletics, said that of the 441 NCAA Division III women’s soccer teams, the Regals “stand alone. We have so many ultra-skilled soccer players on this team, and it’s a credit to our coaching staff on the recruiting job they’ve done. But [then] the hard work begins. Now you have to mesh 33 highly skilled players who all want to be on the field for those 11 spots. So they have to put their team above self, and this team does that better than any I’ve seen. We never had bad body language on the sidelines. … It really speaks to their character.”

Activities and attitudes outside of practice strengthened the team’s bond. It was “all the little things,” players and coaches said, such as get-togethers in dorms, sleepovers, pasta dinners and simply valuing each other as human beings.

“Everyone gets so hyped on the label of playing Division I college soccer,” Marino said. “But you don’t need the Division I label to be a great place for people to play.”

Coaches Are Champions, Too

Cal Lutheran dominated Division III women’s soccer in more ways than one in 2023. Head coach Frank Marino, along with assistant coaches Shannon Pennington ’97, MEd ’05, Brenton Frame, Chloe Montano and Tony Castro, were named the 2023 Division III Women’s National Staff of the Year by United Soccer Coaches, as well as the 2023 NCAA Women’s Region Staff of the Year for Division III, Region X.

Marino, a father of five and Thousand Oaks resident who grew up in Newbury Park, has been a coach with the Regals since 2009, and is the all-time winningest coach in Regals Soccer history, with a record of 203-63-43. During his tenure, the Regals have played in the SCIAC postseason tournament every year and won five SCIAC championships.

Marino said he and his colleagues earned the honor because of “all the amazing successes we had this season, and ultimately winning the national championship. We made a lot of positive decisions with personnel and tactics.”

But perhaps more important, he said, was “creating an environment where players can be successful. We help create a culture of authentic relationships, trust and respect. My philosophy is built around giving players freedom and knowing it is OK to make mistakes because we have belief in and trust them. We are a family that cares for each other.”