The women’s soccer team at Washington University of St. Louis just won its first-ever national championship, and former Foxes’ standout athlete Taylor Cohen played a big role in their victory.
A freshman forward, Taylor scored the lone goal for her team in regulation play during the national finale against five-time champs Messiah College. After playing to a 1-1 draw, the squads battled through two overtimes before Washington University finally prevailed in penalty kicks to claim the NCAA Division III title. It was Taylor’s sixth goal of the season, and most likely her most important one, and earned the rookie a spot on the NCAA championship all-tournament team.
In high school, Taylor was just as much of a game-changer. She earned four letters in soccer and amassed 52 career goals and 24 assists. She was instrumental in leading her team to two section championships, the WPIAL semi-finals in 2015, and was named a captain and the team’s most valuable player in her senior year. The Fox Chapel native was also voted all-section three times, all-WPIAL twice, and was on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette North Xtra All-Star Team.
In basketball, Taylor also was a key player and captain. She was a three-year letter winner on the Fox Chapel Area High School girls’ team and scored 730 career points in three seasons.
Taylor’s journey to Washington University and a position on the national championship team didn’t exactly follow a direct path. When she originally was looking into colleges as a high school student, she had other ideas for continuing her athletic career until she suffered a significant ACL tear when she was 17-years-old. She not only missed her entire high school basketball season as a junior, but also was unable to play in soccer spring tournaments with her travel team from the Beadling Soccer Club. As six-time state champions and the reigning regional champions, her team had been invited to the most prestigious showcase tournaments across the country where many top-level collegiate soccer programs typically recruit players in their junior year. Her injury and the resulting disappointments forced her to reconsider her future.
“My injury really changed a lot of things for me,” she says, including her dream to play NCAA Division I soccer, “but everything happens for a reason.”
Taylor’s silver lining was an opportunity to play soccer for the Washington University Bears, something she aggressively pursued after watching a game in Pittsburgh between them and Carnegie-Mellon University. She approached the Bears’ coach, established ongoing communication with him, visited the school, and fell in love with everything about it. Plus, as a high school honors students who took an abundance of Advanced Placement classes, the university offered Taylor a top-notch education and entrance into the school’s well-respected Olin School of Business.
However, unlike Taylor’s high school experiences where her athleticism and hard work earned her positions on varsity teams as a freshman, she quickly found that wasn’t going to be the case in college.
“For sure it was a transition,” says the alum, who had to acclimate herself to a different level of play and did so in part by drawing upon her earlier adversity to advance in the depth chart. “College is so fast-paced and everyone is good, strong, big, and fast. I wasn’t used to that kind of game. I didn’t play a lot at first because I was just trying to figure out everything. But as I gained confidence, my playing time started to increase, and I became a starter at the end of the season and throughout the playoffs.”
When describing her mindset microseconds before sending the ball over the Messiah goalkeeper’s head to score the goal in the championship game, she says, “My coach always talks about getting any part of your body on the ball. I had an opportunity to make that happen, so I made a quick decision and it worked. I have never experienced that kind of excitement, and then to see my teammates running down the field to congratulate me… I’m just with an amazing group of people who push me to do better, and my coach cares about us beyond soccer. He wants us to be great women just as much as he wants us to be great soccer players.”
Although she now is making her mark in college athletics, Taylor still treasures her time with the Foxes girls’ soccer team and remembers her coach, Peter Torres, with great respect.
“Some of my best memories were when we made it to the WPIAL semi-finals,” she says. “It was the best I’d ever seen my team play and it was the most fun I’d ever had playing soccer. Peter was a great coach. He’s laid back, but very smart. He encouraged team bonding and wanted us to set examples for the younger players.”
As for her coach’s recollections, Torres remarks, “Taylor was a tremendous and versatile player. It was no surprise to hear that she was able to not only contribute to her college team’s success, but also was a significant player in the championship game.”
Despite what she originally thought at the time was one of the worst things she had ever gone through – her ACL tear – there really can be an upside to great challenges. Just ask this hometown girl, and she’ll tell you things really did work out for the best.