The women’s soccer team will play their first home, regular-season game in the new ASC Lacrosse and Soccer Field tomorrow. Adams State will host Texas-Permian Basin at 3:30 PM. To kick (pun intended) off the season, I got a moment to catch up with co-captain of the women’s soccer team, Erika Bendele.

Erika Bendele

(DA= Me, Daniel Allsup)

(EB= Erika Bendele)

DA: So why did you choose soccer? Did you play multiple sports in high school and soccer was just your best sport?

EB: I played a lot of sports when I was really little, but I have played soccer since I was four and I haven’t missed a season since.

DA: You played year-round?

EB: Yes, I played on a competitive club team, called Rush, and played at Bear Creek High School every season.

DA: Why Adams State? Did you have multiple colleges you were interested in or that were interested in you?

EB: I sent out letters to teams in the RMAC. I received a response from CSU-Pueblo and a late response from Mesa State. I chose Adams State because I liked the girls. I really like Coach Cliff’s coaching philosophy and the energy the whole team has.

DA: Did you have any friends that went to school at Adams?

EB: No, I didn’t know anyone.

DA: So what’s the new soccer facility like?

EB: I love the new soccer field. Really nice turf, kind of a balance between grass and turf, because it’s a little bit longer so the ball doesn’t have as much rebound on it. We’re one of the few fields in the conference that has a full-size field, which is 120-by-80 yards. So it’s nice to have the full length and width of the field to work with.

DA: So it’s the best field you’ve ever played on?

EB: I like it a lot, I don’t know if I would say it’s the best field I’ve ever played on, but it’s the best turf field I’ve ever played on.

DA: The women’s soccer team was 5-12-1 last year, what went wrong?

EB: It does look like something went wrong. I’d say a lot of it was fluky stuff that just tends to happen. Coach Cliff tells us, “You have to win 50-50 balls, have the luck on your side of the referees, and also have your own hard work ethic.” I think a lot of it was just fatigue from us and the big loss against CSU-Pueblo in overtime at the end of the season really killed it. We were one goal out of playoffs and we have been for the last two years. I know that our hard work ethic this year is going to push us through to the playoffs.

DA: That’s going to be the main difference this year, the team’s experience?

EB: Yes, our experience, we have a lot of upper-classmen on our team and a lot of the freshman are really mature on the field, especially, so it’s going to help us a lot.

DA: What is it like playing for Coach Cliff?

EB: I like playing for Coach Cliff because he has a family philosophy. We are just a bunch of sisters and a big family before anything and that really plays into the chemistry of the team. He keeps us in line. People say he can be over-strict, but I believe in his coaching philosophy and I think it’s going to bring us to the top.

DA: You’re a senior and you’ve started a ton of games—

EB: Every game!

DA: Alright, so since you’ve started EVERY GAME, what type of leadership role do you have on the team?

EB: I’m one of the captains with Amber Drumm. I like to lead by example and play really really hard. I play a lot of minutes and it gets hard sometimes, but I feel like it’s more important to physically lead than to verbally lead. I try to keep the girls under control when the referees are getting crazy and the game gets crazy. I just try to create as many scoring opportunities for the team as I can.

DA: Since this is your last year, are there any goals or accomplishments you would like to achieve before graduating?

EB: I most definitely want to make it to the national tournament. Chris Day (associate AD of Marketing and Promotions) told me that I’m on track to break some records. I would like to break playing time records and continue making every game a start this year. Most importantly I just want to play as a team and continue that bond we have as a team and make it to the national tournament for the first time. And make the playoffs for the first time in my soccer career.

DA: From the moment you stepped on campus, how have you changed to the soccer player you are today?

EB: I think my soccer IQ has gone up a lot. I’ve realized the different aspects of the game and how to break down the game and try to fix things when they are going bad. When I was a freshman I was kind of skittish. I worked really hard all the time, but now I know how to put that work into an effective manner to help control the game in our favor.