CARY, N.C. — Turns out that the third time wasn’t the charm for Florida State.

The Seminole women’s soccer program, appearing in its third straight College Cup over the weekend at WakeMed Soccer Park, fell at the final hurdle once again, losing 1-0 in overtime to UCLA in the national title game.

Kallman after Sunday's loss.

Fretting about another missed attempt at a title is not a mentality head coach Mark Krikorian shares, however. He prefers to look at everything on a year-by-year basis, quick to dismiss concerns about coming up short a third straight time.

“I look at this as another season, another group of players, as a different team,” he said. “The goal is always to get back here.”

Simply getting back to a third straight College Cup was an impressive accomplishment when looking at the talent the program lost after last year’s appearance. They bid farewell to linchpins like Tiffany McCarty, Casey Short and Ines Juarez. All three of those players have transitioned to pro careers in 2013.

The Seminoles entered the campaign with plenty of questions about how they’d fare in the rigors of the ACC after that kind of a talent drain. Built on the cornerstone of senior leaders Kassey Kallman and Kelsey Wys, the Seminoles finished the season with an immaculate 23-2-3 record. They also won an ACC tournament title, as international standouts like Dagney Brynjarsdottir, Megan Campbell and Marta Bakowska-Mathews provided outstanding contributions.

Krikorian credited a lot this season’s success to the senior duo of Kallman and Wys, which helped guide a defense that conceded just 16 goals on the season.

“I think we came into this season with a lot of uncertainty, and a couple of things we knew for sure were Kassey and Kelsey Wys, that we had two seasoned veterans who were outstanding leaders and great players and that they were going to have to put us on their back at times and carry us,” he said. “I think that we were playing in the national championship [Sunday] mostly because of their efforts.”

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In his nine seasons at Florida State, Krikorian has guided the program to six College Cups overall, and they are two-time runners up. It seems like only a matter of time before they get their breakthrough, like the Bruins did this year.

Still, winning the national title is always the goal for FSU. And Sunday’s loss takes something out of a season most programs would happily take. Yet they still missed out on the ultimate goal, removing some of the luster.

“Going through the season and being successful has been great, but this is our third year back and we’re not satisfied with losing in the championship,” Kallman said. “I wish the best of luck to them next year and hopefully they get it done.”

With Wys and Kallman the only two seniors on the 2013 roster, don’t be surprised to see the Seminoles back again at this stage of the 2014 season.

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