Senior forward Ioanna Papatheodorou celebrates during Washington's match against No. 5 Michigan State at Husky Soccer Stadium on Oct. 13, 2024.
As soon as Ioanna Papatheodorou stepped off the plane, Washington women’s soccer head coach Nicole Van Dyke made a promise.
It was late 2022, and the forward had just wrapped up her sophomore season with UMass Lowell, where she led the team with 10 goals and four assists for 24 points. In her 18 starts, she notched seven multi-point games and a hat trick against Stonehill in the Red Hawks’ 7-7-4 campaign.
But the Nea Erythraia, Greece native admits that she always had plans to transfer to a Power Five conference, and not long after a loss to Albany in the America East Quarterfinals, Papatheodorou was on a flight bound for Seattle.
“It was funny because I remember I landed and the first thing Nicole said was ‘I promise we’ll make it worth it for you to fly another six hours [back home to Greece] from where you already are,’” Papatheodorou said on Nov. 13. “From the moment I visited Washington, it was a clear answer. I felt really included. I hung out with the girls and it just felt like family and something that I could see myself living and belonging in.”
Van Dyke made promises.
But she couldn’t make guarantees.
“She took a leap of faith,” Van Dyke said in a phone interview Nov. 13. “You leave the comfortability of a mid-major, you’re starting every game, you score a lot of goals. And at the time, she didn’t sign up with all of the puzzle pieces in place.”
Van Dyke added: “She knew that it was going to take two years. She knew it wasn’t going to be immediate. But she knew there was a process in place for her last year to find a lot of success in the team.”
Senior forward Ioanna Papatheodorou attempts a penalty kick during Washington's match against Michigan on Oct. 10, 2024 at Husky Soccer Stadium in Seattle, Wash.
In a puzzle far from finished, however, Papatheodorou still felt like the missing piece.
The senior forward has led Washington in points each of the last two seasons, and tops the leaderboard in goals (eight), game-winning goals (five), and points (18) in 2024. She’s tied for third in assists with three, only trailing junior forward Kelsey Branson and sophomore forward Samiah Shell. In its 2-1 win against No. 5 Michigan State on Oct. 13, Papatheodorou scored on both penalty shots to deliver the first top-five win for the program since 2017.
But her most meaningful goals came against Purdue and Indiana at the end of September, part of a three-week stretch where her parents, Maria Antoniou and Dimitris Papatheodorou, watched her compete in the United States for the first time. She said that playing on the other side of the world “hurt” her father, who often had to wait to watch the film she sent him when matches were not accessible through livestream.
For the ones her family was able to watch, they would wake up as early as 4 a.m. in Athens.
“I think he almost cried at first, he was so emotional about it,” Papatheodorou said about her father watching her play in Seattle. “He couldn't wait for every game to come up, he was so excited… It was a dream come true. All those years I was playing in [Massachusetts] or even my first year here in Washington, they were not able to make it. The money was too much. They promised me that senior year, they would come out for at least a few games.”
Papatheodorou was most eager to show her parents Washington’s facility, claiming the pitch is “one of the better ones you would see back home.” And while she conceded that the atmosphere in Europe might be slightly better, she said it was fun to show her parents the “party” atmosphere that America brings.
True to form, Van Dyke couldn’t let the family go home without a celebration.
“When I found out that they weren’t going to be here for Senior Day, it was kind of a quick turnaround because we were like ‘Wait a minute, we need to make Senior Day happen for you,’” Van Dyke said. “Maybe we don’t have a framed jersey, but let’s celebrate you and bring them on the field. I was pumped to make it happen because they just landed a few hours before that. It ended up working out.”
Senior forward Ioanna Papatheodorou looks toward the pitch during Washington's match against New Mexico State at Husky Soccer Stadium on September 1, 2024.
More than she could have thought.
Because for the Huskies’ actual Senior Day, against Oregon on Oct. 27, Papatheodorou was in Belgium, competing as a member of the Greek international team for the European Championship qualifying matches.
“Wearing the national team jersey is the biggest honor for a player,” Papatheodorou said. “Hearing your national anthem play before your game, it’s a moment that I don’t even know how to describe the feeling of.”
Of course, that didn’t make the moment any less bittersweet.
“I cannot help myself from being sad for not being there,” Papatheodorou said. “Just seeing the fun they had and celebrations and everything. It was just amazing. I was just missing the vibe at the moment.”
She wouldn’t miss it for long. Just four days after subbing in during the 74th minute in Greece’s 5-0 loss to Belgium, Papatheodorou was back on the pitch — this time in Minnesota — for Washington’s meeting with No. 17 Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
In a deadlocked match that required a shootout, the senior forward delivered the opening blow for the Huskies in an eventual 5-4 win in penalties. She did so again a little less than two weeks later against No. 25 Utah State — this time in the first round of the NCAA women's soccer tournament — to help propel Washington to a 3-1 shootout win.
It's what brings them to Starkville, where Washington — winners of eight of its last 11 matches — takes on No. 2 Mississippi State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, Nov. 22. The match is set to start at 4 p.m. and will air on ESPN Plus.
For these moments, those extra six hours are certainly worth it.
“We were one of the last teams that got in,” Papatheodorou said. “We wanted so much to hear our name, and we tried so hard this season for it. I haven't been to the tournament for all those four years, I've been so close every time. It's a relief, but also excitement for what’s to come.”
Reach Sports Editor Ty Gilstrap at sports@dailyuw.com. X: @ty_gilstrap
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