Photo by: Ashley Alonzo
The Lady Braves soccer team is well into their preseason schedule: off to a start of wins and losses. For the last eight years, they have had winning seasons. Last year’s season ended with 14 wins and only four losses as well as a conference championship and a bid to the national tournament.
One could say the bar is set extremely high for a fairly young team consisting of just four seniors, 18 juniors, three sophomores and eight first-year students. This is what first-year student Cacey Villa from Gilbert, Arizona, junior Diana Moreno from Escondido, California, and student assistant coach Sommer Nix from Las Vegas, Nevada, have to say about the upcoming season.
Villa says the fast-pace style of play and all-around work that goes into preseason is what surprises her the most about coming to the program. She says that now they are a few games into their preseason schedule, “It is amazing and not as hard as I thought it would be, but still challenging.”
Her top five favorite things about being a Lady Brave Soccer Player include, “the people I’ve met, the mild weather, playing in front of Peoples Bank Field, working with the coaches and the work ethic of my team,” Villa says.
Going into her first season as an upperclassmen, Moreno says, “It’s nice to be seen as a leader instead of keeping my mouth shut all the time, and knowing what to expect conditioning-wise is the best.” Moreno admits that after playing a few games, there are points where they play very well together and other times they are not always on the same page. This is to be expected in preseason games, and she fully believes they will be more consistent by the time the conference schedule begins.
Moreno’s top five favorite things about being a Lady Braves Soccer Player are, “being in shape, having the opportunity to keep getting better, the respect and understanding from professors because of their past successes, support from classmates around campus and being the best program in the KCAC.”
There is a first time for everything but some are more exciting than others. For coach Nix, this is one of those exciting times. After multiple knee injuries, Nix decided to hang up the cleats and break out the clipboard to help her team to another conference title.
Nix says the aspects that surprise her most are how much she does not like making her friends run, as well as being called “Coach Sommer” by freshmen. Nix is looking forward to having a cohesive, drama-free team. After thinking long and hard, Nix decided on her top five favorite things about being a Lady Braves Soccer Coach: “No running, still getting all the gear, being pushed to grow up, gaining experience in coaching, becoming more diversified and expanding out of my comfort zone,” Nix says.
The Lady Braves begin their conference season on September 28 against Bethel College. Here’s to yet another winning season for the Lady Braves Soccer Team!