Wendy Dillinger enters her third year as head women’s soccer coach at UMSL in the 2016 season and her 15th season as a collegiate head coach, where she owns a career record of 154-96-24 (.606).
Dillinger has wasted no time in turning around the Tritons’ program, sporting a 20-13-5 record in her first two years, including a 12-5-4 mark last season in which UMSL earned the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 1982. The 12 wins equal the program’s most since the 2007 team finished 12-7-3. The Tritons also claimed a runner-up finish at the GLVC Championship Tournament.
In her initial season with the Tritons in 2014, Dillinger directed the program to an 8-8-1 record, including a 6-8-1 mark in the GLVC, recording a .500 season for the first time since 2011. The eight wins also equal the combined number of wins in the two previous seasons.
Dillinger came to UMSL from Iowa State University, where she guided the Cyclones to more overall victories in each of her six seasons at the helm of the program.
Before her appointment at Iowa State, Dillinger produced historic achievements as the head coach at Washington University in St. Louis and had a highly successful professional and collegiate playing career. The St. Charles, Mo., native is regarded as the top women’s soccer player in Indiana University history.
Following her collegiate career, Dillinger became the first Hoosier to participate in the professional women’s soccer league, playing with the Atlanta Beat of the WUSA in the league’s inaugural season in 2001.
Dillinger graduated from Indiana in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in general studies with a biology emphasis. She then spent one season playing for Fredericksburg in Denmark of the European Soccer League, helping her club reach Elite Team status after a season in the first division. She also played four seasons for the Indiana Blaze.