After my 3rd season at South Alabama, coming off a great season and run in the
NCAA championship, I felt ready for a new challenge. I wanted to push myself
even more, experience playing in a Power 5 Conference and play against new
teams every week. I entered the transfer portal, where some great teams got
into contact with me.
LSU stood out due being in the SEC, which is a hugely competitive conference. I also think the style of soccer LSU were trying to play suited me really well. Fast forward to fall at LSU, which individually wasn’t my best season in terms of playing time, yet I learnt a lot both on and off the pitch.
I think I grew massively in my mental game, and it really made me realize what
I need to do if I want to achieve my goal of playing professionally. As a team,
we had an up and down season, being 5th in the country at one point, to
only just making the conference tournament. One of my highs was getting a
win in the quarter finals of the tournament against Georgia, playing big
minutes and scoring a penalty in the penalty shootout.
Being in the SEC, the athleticism it required was something very new to me, and something that took time to adjust to. Off the pitch, I met some great people, I loved exploring a new city, a new campus. The sporting events at LSU are insane, our American football stadium holds over 100,000 fans in which is full every game. My
favourite sporting event is the Women’s Gymnastics, they are incredible and
it’s so fun to watch!
Post Christmas break and Spring season on the pitch was much better for me, getting to play in every game against some great teams such as Houston Dash. Playing a professional NWSL team was very tough, yet I loved it and it was good to see the standard that I want to eventually be at. Spring semester included a trip to
New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras… a huge holiday in Louisiana. Spring also
involved me getting my American cat ready for a move to England.
During fall, I had got a kitten from the shelter so at the end of spring we flew home
together. It was lots of hassle, but she’s now loving life in Blackburn. I’m
currently getting ready for my final fall semester, working hard and getting as
fit as possible. In august we travel to California and New York for some of our
preseason games which I’m very excited about. We have a tough fall schedule,
but hopefully this will be my last but best season playing college soccer!
Everyone told me it would fly by, and it definitely has. I'm excited to see what my final semester as a student athlete brings both on and off the pitch.
