Sophia Vlastaris '21 Recruiting Profile

    Growing up playing soccer, I have always had high aspirations and goals. If I couldn't be the best, I always knew I could work to be the most driven, hard working, and relentless player on the pitch. A majority of my player growth came from my experience of playing on an all boys team for two years, completely being out of my comfort zone. On that team, I was by far the loudest voice, motivating my teammates and controlling the game from my starting position of center back. Once I moved up to my high school team, I quickly was able to re-establish myself and my skill as a key player within the team, thus earning my varsity starting spot as a freshman. My sophomore year, however, was more of a challenge. We only had a total of twelve players, but three of them were out with injuries. This enabled us to play with only nine players on the field at all times, with no water breaks or substitutions. That season I played every single minute of our whole schedule, over 900 minutes,  and running over 1,000 miles. I was able to grow my endurance and become an extremely strong player.

    My collegiate goals include to become a key player in the team, and also work to become an example of a player with admirable endurance. I don't want to just get recruited and stay with my same skill level, but rather get recruited and constantly be working to improve every aspect of my game; Increasing my soccer IQ, my physical strength, as well as technical skills. Being a good collegiate player is one of my goals, but striving to be a fantastic student of course comes along with this. Working hard in the class room comes hand in hand with working hard at practice and during games, and becoming a model student athlete who is always striving to improve is my aspiration.