CU freshman Lauren Sullivan heads home for a match against UMKC (WBR/Mike Spomer) CLICK PHOTO TO BUY
After earning their third straight win on Sunday, the Creighton women’s soccer team will look to extend that winning streak and keep the momentum going as they roll through the non-conference portion of their schedule. For 95% of the players that make up this 2013 squad, Tuesday’s 7 p.m. clash with the University of Missouri-Kansas City (3-2-1) is a true road game. For freshman Lauren Sullivan it’s a homecoming.
The Bluejay newcomer out of Kansas City, Mo., scored a record-setting 151 goals during her four-year career at Staley High School, located roughly 30 minutes from Durwood Soccer Stadium & Recreational Field. That’s where Sullivan and her teammates will be playing when Creighton faces UMKC, a team they tied 1-1 last year in a match at Morrison Stadium.
“It’s a weird, conflicting kind of emotions, because it is an away game, but I’m also at home,” Sullivan said. “I’m very, very excited.”
Despite finishing as her school’s all-time leader in goals scored, being named a three-time All-Conference First Team selection, as well as earning a top ten ranking in her region by Top Drawer Soccer, Sullivan wasn’t heavily recruited by the Kangaroos coming out of high school.
“I know [UMKC head coach Chris Cissell] came to a couple of our games, so I know that there was some sort of interest. The only conversations were with my high school coach,” she said.
Instead, Sullivan found herself at Creighton. A place she says has been on her radar for some time despite the team finishing with the worst record in school history last season.
“Back when I was in sixth or seventh grade Toro, which was one of the clubs [in Omaha], had a Friendly tournament that we would always participate in. We came up here one of the years it was played at Morrison Stadium, and since then I’ve been interested [in Creighton]. When I started looking at places to go to school, Creighton was just always one of the first places that I emailed. Just because I’d been here, and I had played on the field… it was a good atmosphere.”
Sullivan has been one of the many bright spots through the first five games for this young Creighton team. She scored her first career goal for the Bluejays (3-2-0) as part of a 6-0 win over North Dakota in the team’s home opener back on Aug 30. She currently leads the team with 12 shots and is tied for second in shots on goal with 6.
As evidenced by her 73 career assists in high school, Sullivan is not just simply a prolific goal scorer but also a capable play-maker. Her two assists on the season are tied for second on the team. One of those assists came in Sunday’s 6-1 victory against Idaho, and it featured one of the best moves you’ll see all season. She stopped, started, juked, and froze not only her defender, but also the defender who was responsible for marking fellow newcomer Kirstyn Corder. Once the pass was delivered, finishing the play with a goal was the easy part, according to Corder.
As incredible as the play looked on the field it’s the type of soccer that Sullivan has been well-versed in for a long time.
“That all goes back to my very first club coach, his name was Tonio Paternostro. He was my coach from fourth grade to eighth grade, and that was all we did. He loved to play pretty soccer, so that’s how I was taught to play. I don’t know I guess it’s just stuck with me,” she said.
Sullivan, who has started in the midfield in three of Creighton’s five games, hopes to play more of that pretty soccer and help her team notch a fourth straight win in front of her friends and family.
“I feel like it’s going to be a lot of good mojo, good nerves. Playing in front of my grandparents, and playing in front of my parents, who have driven up here a few times and I’ve seen them quite a few times. I get to see my sister for the first time in a month,” Sullivan said. “I’m just really excited. You know I’ve been playing soccer for the majority of my life, so obviously I have quite a bit of intrinsic motivation to do well, but I feel like playing at home it’s going to be even more so.”