[dropcap]The[/dropcap] most important part of Lauren Sullivan’s maturation was realized in Big East play last season. The senior forward was a prolific goal scorer from the moment she stepped on campus, but sometimes found herself fighting confidence issues. Then the light bulb came on once the calendar flipped to October.
It started with a performance that was overshadowed in a 4-0 loss at home to DePaul. She only logged 65 minutes on the pitch, managing only two shots, but her effort throughout the match didn’t go unnoticed by assistant coach Craig Scriven.
“Craig pulled me aside and said, ‘whatever you’re doing right now you need to bottle that,'” Sullivan recalled. “I don’t know what happened during that match, but apparently I just switched it on. I just had to get over myself. I think maybe it was an ego check, get over it, get to the next thing.
“I was really upset, we ended up losing pretty badly, and he told me whatever I just did I need to bottle that and bring it every game. That definitely helped because now I knew exactly what the coaches wanted from me. At first I questioned it, like I can’t play this every time — well, yes I can. I should be able to. I have to hold myself to that kind of standard. It was just a wake-up call.”
Scriven’s advice translated into immediate results as three days later she scored two goals, including the game-winner to break a 1-1 tie in the 80th minute against Villanova. She followed that up with a game-tying goal and a game-winning assist in a 3-2 overtime win at Seton Hall. She finished conference play with five goals, the fourth-most in the conference over that time. Of the 10 goals Creighton scored after that DePaul game Sullivan was responsible for seven of them (five goals, two assists).
“When I look at Sully I look at her as a difference maker,” Bluejay head coach Ross Paule said. “It’s not always going to go the way she wants it to, but the bottom line is she fights. She is a competitor. She has that passion to win and that passion to make a difference. My challenge to her is not to wait until the Big East. Start this season with that mentality of being relentless, and then getting even more relentless and continue to build on that.”
Paule saw his star do the right things in the offseason to maintain her second half performance, and believes she has entered the preseason ready to play at a high level from the first game on.
“She worked hard during the summer. She has come back fit. She has come back with a great attitude, and I fully expect her to have an amazing year,” Paule said. “Whether that translates to having many more goals — I think she will — but the bottom line is she’s a difference maker on the field, and she is a threat. It doesn’t matter if you man mark her, it doesn’t matter what you do, she’s going to find a way to battle. She’s going to find a way to get the opportunities. That’s what I tell her. I never want her to lose that tenacity. When she gets that attitude on the field, watch out.”
Entering her fourth season as a starter, the native of Kansas City, Missouri has a chance to end her Bluejay career as one of the best goal scorers the program has ever produced. With 20 goals already under her belt she will begin her final season in Omaha tied for seventh all-time in Creighton women’s soccer history, trailing all-time leader Marcy Gans and second-place Gretta Matthews by 18 and 12 goals, respectively. While acknowledging that she knows where she stands on the all-time list she is only motivated to surpass her own performances of the past rather than those of Bluejays who came before her.
“I think about it especially when people are tweeting things out and that sort of thing,” Sullivan said. “Obviously I see it, but more than anything I just want to do better than I did the year before. My freshman year I had three goals, my sophomore year I had seven, this past year I had ten. I just want to step it up each year.”
More than her own individual performances there is also the fact that she has yet to play a single second in the Big East Tournament. In women’s soccer the top six teams qualify, and each year of her career Creighton has found themselves on the outside looking in come conference tournament time. No year hurt more than last season when they hosted the tournament despite failing to qualify then watched as No. 4 seed Butler — a team that needed double overtime to beat the Bluejays — celebrated an unlikely title run at Morrison Stadium in front of Sullivan and her teammates.
“I think all of us are just thinking about redemption,” she said. “We knew we could have done better. We took Butler to double overtime, so we could have been there. You just have to remember that feeling and let it hurt, then use that to drive you during the offseason. You have to work harder and lift more. You just have to push yourself harder, because obviously the other teams are doing that.”
Sullivan and the Bluejays will begin their road to redemption on August 19th when the open the regular season at home against the Iowa Hawkeyes.