All the kids are back on campus, which means it’s time to kick off the fall slate of sports at Creighton University. As usual, it is ladies first. Ross Paule enters his fifth season leading the women’s soccer program and they will get things started with a match against Kansas State on Friday night at Morrison Stadium.
The Bluejays return eight starters from 2019, including All-Big East First Team midfielder Taryn Jakubowski. This year’s roster features 35 players, the largest of any of Paule’s previous squads by a considerable margin (there were 27 players on the 2016 roster). Below is a position-by-position breakdown from the head coach himself on some of his top performers from the preseason that he expects to have an impact in how things shake for his team in 2019.
Forwards
#7 Lea Hoiness (5’9″ / Freshman / Oslo, Norway)
Lea is a target forward. She’s got great size, she’s strong on the ball. She was a goal scorer in Norway for her club. She has the ability to score off set pieces or from crosses. She’s a battler. She’s a very hard-working forward her size brings a presence to our team. And she’s a leader just from her work ethic, her attitude, and her personality. She has the foundation to be a great player here at Creighton and be a big difference-maker.
#16 Kylin Grubb (5’8″ / Senior / Odessa, Missouri)
‘Grubby’s’ character, work ethic, and heart are such a big part of our team. She is somebody we can rely on to play one minute, two minutes, five minutes, 15 minutes, 45, or 90, and she’s going to do exactly what we ask of her. She’s such a valuable part of our team. She’s a big part of our team whether she plays or not, but I do expect her to be on the field because she’ll make that difference with whatever we need to close out a game. She brings that quality of trust … it’s pretty neat to have players like her because they are a huge part of your culture.
#20 Skylar Heinrich (5’3″ / Freshman / Omaha, Nebraska)
She has so much potential as a dangerous forward. She is a threat with her speed. She is a player who is really developing her technical ability in tight spaces. She’s somebody that I think will be one of those players who gets plenty of opportunities to score this year. It’s just about her really developing that composure around the goal and being confident … she has all the potential in the world to be a great player.
#24 Ashleigh Cearlock (5’2″ / Senior / Springfield, Illinois)
We recruited her because she makes good runs off the ball and she can strike the ball very well. She’s someone who is finding her role within our team in the midfield. Having someone like her for four years we that she knows what is expected of her that we can bring her in any time and give us what we need. She has developed her soccer skills a great deal.
#25 Cassie Legband (5’8″ / Senior / Omaha, Nebraska)
Cassie has really developed over the four years. For her it’s about focusing on her strengths — she’s very good at getting down the sideline and putting a cross in. She’s also someone who scored a lot of goals in her youth, and she still has that in her bag. She’s somebody that I expect will get opportunities out there and will hopefully create and score some goals for us.
#28 Juelle Love (5’3″ / Junior / Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Juelle has really grown in our program. When we first got her in as a transfer she was a little raw in her understanding of the game, and how to find space, and how to take advantage of space. She’s grown into a player that will give you 100% of her effort. She is somebody that I believe will get opportunities to score this year, but even more than that she’s going to create trouble for the other team and create chances for us to get in and around the goal.
Midfielders
#6 Daphne Nierop (5’4″ / Freshman / Amsterdam, Netherlands)
She comes from a very good club in Holland. It’s a club that is knowing for learning the game and understanding the movements. I see her as a coach on the field. Even though she doesn’t speak as good of English as everybody else that doesn’t matter because we are speaking the language of soccer. I see her as someone who is really going to grow into our system. It may take some time because she is very young, but she has the mindset, the work ethic, and the attitude to really grow into a leader on the field.
#8 Lauren Harkes (5’9″ / Senior / Fairfax, Virginia)
Lauren is a very experienced player coming out of a very successful college program in Clemson. She comes from a family of soccer legends. It’s fun to have that type of experience come in. She loves the game and is a player that we can expect to lead on the field. She understands the game very well, so she’ll be another one of those coaches on the field.
#19 Taryn Jakubowski (5’4″ / Senior / Lake in the Hills, Illinois)
Taryn came here as kind of an unknown. I knew how talented she was, but over the four years she has become a more complete player. She obviously gives 100% all the time — from the defensive work she needs to do, to the offensive work she needs to do; she’ll fill any role on the field. She’s somebody that we expect to find ways to take over games. I couldn’t be more proud of who Taryn is as a person and a player.
#23 Kate Johnson (5’5″ / Senior / Ankeny, Iowa)
She’s gotten a lot of time on the field over the years and has really developed in the center-midfield role. She’s somebody that I think we can trust to put in at any time and fill the role that we need to move the ball and make sure we are locked down defensively.
#33 Emma Paule (5’5″ / Freshman / Omaha, Nebraska)
Obviously I know her very well and have coached her and watched her for a long time. She is somebody that understands what I’m looking for and is somebody who is going to put in the effort. She has a great work ethic and attitude coming into a situation where her dad is the coach, and she knows that I’m going to develop her. She has a great foundation to do what I’m asking of her. She distributes the ball very well and has good vision. She’s consistent in connecting passes. She knows I believe in her, and coaching her is something that I really enjoy. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s something that I cherish.
#34 Emma Yackley (5’2″ / Freshman / Lawrence, Kansas)
Yackley is a super hard-working central-midfield player. She reminds me a lot of Taryn when she first came in. She’s very hard-working, very active. She loves having the ball. She’s creative and has good range with her passing. I look forward to seeing her develop, because she has great ability on the ball and I think she’s somebody who will make a difference in this program.
#99 Keelie Fothergill (5’3″ / Junior / Lee’s Summit, Missouri)
Keelie is another of those super-talented, technical, creative players. She can be a very special player. She’s somebody that we can put in many roles on the field. She’s settled into a defensive-midfield role, but that’s because she is a smart player. She puts herself in good position, she moves the ball well, and she has the vision to find our most dangerous players up the field.
Defenders
#2 Anna Grassinger (5’4″ / Freshman / Bergheim, Germany)
Anna is a super hard-working center back that enjoys having the ball at her feet, enjoys coming into the midfield with the ball. She brings a different quality to us in the back line. She has really refined her craft as a center back, and she has a great foundation to further develop her strengths.
#5 Emma Braasch (5’6″ / Senior / Prairie Village, Kansas)
She is probably one of the most developed players I’ve seen in the last four years. She was not somebody that I recruited, but she came in with a raw, hard-working attitude. She has really developed at coming out of the back and being more involved on the attacking side, and with being more consistent with her outlet balls out of the back. She’s definitely somebody that we will rely on to connect the back line.
#9 Morgan Szarka (5’7″ / Sophomore / Aurora, Colorado)
Morgan is hard-working. She wants to develop and is a student of the game. She really developed in her first year. We knew we were going to get that work ethic, but she’s really developing her technical ability to have more confidence coming out of the back. The more she develops her full game, the more she’s going to get those opportunities on the field to make a difference.
#12 Jaylin Bosak (5’8″ / Senior / Omaha, Nebraska)
Jaylin is probably one of the best 1v1 defenders I’ve seen in the game. She can really track players down and is very difficult to beat 1v1. She’s really developing her confidence and consistency coming out of the back now. She is somebody that we rely on to connect the back line. She’s a leader back there. She has an amazing presence on the field. I think this year you’ll really see her develop that leadership quality in the back line.
#14 Josie Clough (5’3″ / Redshirt Sophomore / Fairway, Kansas)
She’s been unlucky with injuries, but she’s now coming back pretty close to full health. She creates depth in our back line. She’s somebody who can play on the right or left side. She understands what we are looking for and it’s amazing to have that experience coming in and knowing what to expect with what we’re asking of her.
#15 Ansley Atkinson (5’7″ / Sophomore / Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Ansley is an all-around talented player. She has the technical ability, the athletic ability, the vision. She is somebody we can put anywhere on the field and she would do very well. She’s settled into the left back role, which is very important for us because we need players back there that can get up and down the sideline and get into the attack, while being smart and making sure we keep cover.
#18 Haylee Blach (5’7″ / Junior / Centennial, Colorado)
Haylee Blach is one of those culture builders. She is a leader on and off the field. She puts in the work and has the attitude to learn and grow into her role on the field. She can play anywhere on the back line. She’s coming back from an injury and we have a deep back line, but she’s going to challenge for playing time back there. With her we have the ability to either bring in a leader off the bench or start her any time and we know what we’ll get out of her. She’s a huge part of why our culture is where it is and where we need it to go.
#21 Jordy Rothwell (5’9″ / Freshman / Madison, Wisconsin)
She has amazing character and is a student of the game. She has great potential and we see her, just like many of the other freshmen, as someone we look forward to developing. She has great leadership qualities. She’s very vocal and has a great personality. From the soccer side of it, she understands the game and puts in the extra work to ensure that she is developing.
#32 Gabby Grimaldi (5’3″ / Freshman / Kansas City, Missouri)
We brought her in as a right back. She has the athletic ability to get up and down the sideline. She also has good range with her passing from playing it shorter out of the back or stretching the field. She’s come in and given us depth and the ability to make changes and switch players around.
Goalkeepers
#1 Keelan Terrell (5’9″ / Redshirt Freshman / Olathe, Kansas)
Keelan is somebody we recruited long ago. She was one of our first commitments when we got here. She has an amazing foundation as a shot-blocker. She has all the tools to do very well. She’s been unlucky with an injury over the last year. She’s fighting it to come back, but she is on that path to really challenge for that top spot.
#13 Lux Govindarajan (5’7″ / Redshirt Freshman / Brampton, Ontario, Canada)
Lux is somebody that has a great attitude and is going to work hard, try to develop, and strive to get some playing time. She has the right attitude behind it and we are going to train her to refine her craft as a goalkeeper.
#29 Katie Sullivan (5’8″ / Redshirt Sophomore / Wheaton, Illinois)
She had a great opportunity last year to be our number one goalkeeper, and she really took on the challenge. She’s really developing as a goalkeeper and has gotten better over the summer. She is our number one right now, and we trust her. We believe she can lock it down back there for us, but she has to continue to develop because we have a very deep goalkeeping situation.
#30 Mikayla Grocki (5’9″ / Freshman / Kerrville, Texas)
We just found her right before the season. She came to our ID camp. We like her build and her size. She has the attitude of really wanting to find her craft as a goalkeeper, and that’s our goal for her. She has the tools to do very well.