Kirsten Nelson’s last line of defense leads William Smith into national title game

William Smith grad student Kirsten Nelson has nearly as many clean sheets to her name as she has goals conceded this season for a team that’s now one win away from an NCAA Division III national title.

The Washington Township native and Paul VI grad has recorded 12 clean sheets this season and boasts a .59 goals against average conceding just 14 times in 24 games this season. She had four saves in a 2-0 win over Emory on Friday to book a spot in today’s national championship game in Las Vegas against Washington University of St. Louis.

In five tournament games Nelson, who has played for SJEB FC in the WPSL, and William Smith have conceded just twice. They face a WashU team today that’s been even stingier defensively while outscoring opponents 12-1 in five tournament games, including a 3-0 win over Christopher Newport in Friday’s semifinal.

WashU also has a local connection on the team in rookie goalkeeper Suzie Green, of Bryn Mawr. The Delaware County Christian grad and former Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals standout has been limited to five appearances this season but is getting valuable experience as a first-year player and understudy to grad student Sidney Connor.

Both William Smith and WashU have been at this stage multiple times before. William Smith won the third ever Division III title as host in 1988 and won again in 2015. This is the program’s fifth appearance in the final and first since 2019. They were in the national semifinal in 2022. This is WashU’s third appearance in the final. They were finalists in 2009 and 2015 and won it in 2016.

As was the case in the men’s final on Saturday and when WashU won it in 2016 Sunday’s final could come to kicks, which has gone both ways for Nelson and the Herons this season. They defeated RIT on kicks but fell to Ithaca in their conference championship.

Today’s match kicks off at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast live on NCAA.com.