With all of its prestige and honor, Stanford’s Women’s Soccer Program has definitely brought up some of the best soccer players of our time. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, their 2016 NCAA Tournament run was cut short in the second round when they fell 1-0 to Santa Clara in overtime. Despite the early exit, Stanford is still home to some of the most impressive young soccer players the country has seen - one of them being forward Kyra Carusa.
Impressive from the start
The San Diego native burst onto the field with an impressive 2015 season playing in all 23 games with 22 starts. As a redshirt freshman, Carusa scored five goals and tallied six against, including the game-winning goal against UCLA to help the Cardinals win their 10th Pac-12 title. She collected numerous accolades in the postseason, including Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention, Pac-12 All-Freshman team and All-Pac-12 second team.
“It’s a blessing and it’s such a privilege to play on the women’s soccer team at Stanford especially with the prestige,” she told VAVEL USA about playing at a university with such a rich history in women’s soccer. “I think it also puts a big target on our backs as well. Every team steps up regardless of what day it is or what point of the season it is. They go ‘We’re playing Stanford and this could make or break our season right now.’ They go in as an underdog regardless of what the standings are just because of the prestige and just because of the tradition of women’s soccer at Stanford.”
Now a redshirt sophomore, she admitted that it was an adjustment playing in games last season saying, “Even though I was a sophomore at Stanford, being a freshman technically in soccer...It was weird - just playing with such a diverse and different team. I felt very much like I was getting used to it.”
However, she found herself more comfortable this time around. Having last year’s experience truly helped with her confidence, giving her the ability to take on more of a leadership role with the team’s younger players. Entering the 2016 season, Carusa was able to feel more at ease on the field, and she once again made a statement with five goals - two of which were game-winners - and this time 10 assists, with three of them being game-winning assists. This year, she’s earned a spot on the All-Pac-12 second team once again, and she was also named to the 2016 NSCAA All-Pacific Region third team.
Teamwork makes the dream work for Carusa
With 10 goals and 16 assists so far in her college career, Carusa is easily seen as one of Stanford’s biggest offensive threats. She modestly admits that team chemistry has played a big part in how well she’s done so far in saying, “Chemistry wise, especially this season, it clicked so much more. We just had a feel of where we wanted to be.”
The forward stressed just how important the team chemistry this season has been, explaining how vital the connection between the center forward and attacking center mid is for the Cardinals. “The way we play with our attacking center mids - we want them in the box and in the mix and running across the goal so I found myself finding them quite often,” she told VAVEL USA.
Carusa was also quick to compliment teammates such as Andi Sullivan, Michelle Xiao, Megan Turner and Jordan DiBiasi on their instinctive and timed runs when she added on saying they have all scored “big time goals this season [by] just knowing to get in front of their player right when I was going to cross the ball into the box which in itself is a huge reason why I was getting assists.” She even mentioned how her and DiBiasi, a sophomore midfielder, joke about how “telepathic” they are on the field, with DiBiasi making the perfect run for Carusa to simply pick her head up and find her on the cross.
New leaders to emerge within the next season
Stanford’s 2016 roster boasted six seniors who have become crucial to the team dynamic. Not only that, but recent U.S. Women’s National Team call-up Andi Sullivan suffered an ACL tear in Stanford’s last match against Santa Clara. Although the redshirt sophomore has often looked to these teammates as leaders, and understands that things will be different without them moving forward, she sees this as an opportunity for others to raise their level.
“Especially in the off season, I think that - remembering the loss from the tournament when we wanted to go win the whole thing - that’s just going to drive us and it’s going to help us develop that more competitive mentality, that grit, that idea to never be in that position ever again,” she explained, reflecting on the past season’s events. “With the seniors heading out, this offseason is going to be crucial for having our freshman really just step up and raise their level of play - and our sophomores and our juniors to really take on that upperclassmen role that we’re really going to need going into next season.”
Carusa told VAVEL USA that the girls she plays with have been recruited to Stanford for their leadership and big contributions on past teams, and now is the time for them to really step up in a time when things are changing.
Professional play in her future?
Although she still has two more years of eligibility at Stanford, the idea of playing professionally has been brought up more often as time goes on for the San Diego native. She hadn’t thought much of it before now, but she said, “knowing how much I love the game and how much time you actually have to play and kind of the opportunities you have to play at such a high level...I really think [it] is something I’d look into.”
Carusa is aware of just how well the National Women’s Soccer League has done in its few years of existence, and has even considered the possibility of playing in Europe. However, there’s still time for her to think about it and figure out all the details.
“I think ultimately, if the opportunity presented itself and things were lining up where I could play, I don’t think I could pass the opportunity, especially when you wouldn’t get the opportunity again in your life,” she expressed on her possible future as a professional soccer player.