Houston native Michaela Abam has always been an attacking threat for West Virginia University. However, this year has just been something else for the forward - and the team as a whole - as they found themselves fighting for the NCAA National Championship, making it all the way the 2016 College Cup Final. This season Abam was named to the NSCAA second team All-American, All-Big 12 first team for the second time in her career and topped it all off by being named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. With such caliber under her belt, Abam is definitely a player to watch over the next few years.
Abam looks back on the season
2016 was nothing short of incredible for Abam and the Mountaineers. Winning the Big 12 Conference Title was huge for the program, and even bigger was the incredible NCAA Tournament run they made, including the program’s first-ever appearance in the College Cup. In short, Abam said, “It’s been a very long journey.”
The junior also wanted to make sure she gave her thanks to everyone who took part in the team’s season. “I’m proud of the team. I’m proud of the staff. I’m proud of everyone who was part of the journey - Mountaineer nation, everybody,” she listed. “Because, I mean, without them I don’t think we would’ve even been close in getting as far as we’ve gotten.” She also expressed how amazed she is by how the program has improved from her freshman year to now, and she’s excited to see where her team goes next.
This is also why, when asked about her biggest motivator, Abam was quick with her answer: this year. She largely credits the seniors - Ashley Woolpert, Carly Black, Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence - for all their hard work and for helping set a new standard for West Virginia Women’s Soccer.
“How many people can say they had two Olympians or two players who went to a World Cup on their team?” the forward asked, referring to Buchanan and Lawrence, seniors who are part of the Canadian Women’s National Team.
“This year just set the whole motivation factor for what’s going to happen next year,” she explained. “It set a whole standard and next year we’re going to have to live up to those standards if we really want to make ourselves get to that point again.”
A big time goal-scorer for the Mountaineers
The West Virginia junior currently sits seventh in the record books with 32 career-goals, 12 of them coming within the past year. She also boasts nine assists on the season, thirteen in total so far. Abam admits she doesn’t keep up with all the stats and records, it’s always her sister updating her on it all.
“I mean it’s always great, you know to review and look at,” she told VAVEL USA. “but again, [my] main goal honestly - especially this time around for next year coming up - is to get that national championship and to not let it go away from us.”
Abam’s most recent goal she scored came in the 74th minute of the College Cup semi-final against women’s soccer dynasty University of North Carolina - a game she would live over and over again if she could. With that goal, the forward propelled her team into the final match against University of Southern California. This marked her fifth game-winning goal of the season and 12th goal in 2016 to lead the team in both goals and game-winning goals.
“If I didn’t get on it someone else would’ve gotten on it,” Abam humbly expressed. “The pass was great - [Ashley Lawrence] literally karate-chopped the pass. I don’t know how she did it.” On her cheeky little pull back before the shot, she tells VAVEL USA that she and her teammates all joke about it now because “that was one the touches we were working on before practice before we start drills and everything.”
She goes on and attempts to describe the emotions that filled her after the goal, but was unable to put it into words that would do the emotions justice. The forward couldn’t even talk after it happened but shared, “Honestly it’s probably by far - right now in my life - the best feeling I’ve ever had...It was an amazing feeling.”
Youth national teams and choosing West Virginia
Abam, like many other great collegiate soccer players, has been part of the U.S. Youth National Team system. Starting with the U-14 Youth National Team, the forward feels it’s been a big part of helping her improve her skills and soccer intelligence over the years. “I’m very grateful to be called up into camp,” she says. “It was a fun time, met great people through it all and I mean, soccer wise and playing wise it definitely sharpened my IQ.”
The biggest part about those camps, for Abam, was being able to take what she learned and the feedback she received to shape her game even when she returned. She credits her coaching staff, Nikki Izzo-Brown and company, on helping her work on everything she needed to. “I feel like every time I came back Izzo was always helping me with what I needed to perfect or what I needed to sharpen,” she explained, “and to come back and actually work on what I needed to sharpen to get fit [for] the next level honestly helped.”
On choosing schools, the Houston, Texas native revealed, “I literally didn’t even know West Virginia was a state. Literally when I heard ‘oh West Virginia’s scouting you’ I was like ‘like the west of Virginia? What do you mean?’” Laughing, she added, “Now when people are like ‘What’s West Virginia?’ I’m like ‘You’re dumb!’” Although she wasn’t even aware of the school before, she can’t imagine herself anywhere else now.
“I can only thank God for the whole experience. It’s nuts,” she explained. “There was no other place, no other staff that would be able to handle my craziness. It’s amazing. I would never pick another place to be.”
Professional soccer hopefully in Abam’s future
Looking forward into her career, Abam expressed her desire to play overseas once she finishes her time at West Virginia University. “It’d be cool to play here in the states as well, especially because [of the] growth,” she told VAVEL USA. “but I’ve always wanted to go abroad and experience the whole out of the US atmosphere with women’s soccer and everything like that.”
She hopes when the time comes it’s something she’ll be able to pursue. For now though, the junior is focused on helping her team get back to the College Cup and is driven by the hunger to be the one to lift the NCAA Championship trophy a year from now.