ISU career leaders
Here are Indiana State University’s career women’s soccer leaders in five offensive categories (through Saturday):
Points: 1. Lauren Podolski (2004-07) 70; 2. Nichole Tiggs (2002-05) 48; 3. Claire Hemkins (2001-04), Sydney Lovelace (2012-15) 47
Goals: 1. Lauren Podolski (2004-07) 25; 2. Nichole Tiggs (2002-05), Claire Hemkins (2001-04) 19; 4. Sydney Lovelace (2012-15) 17
Assists: 1. Lauren Podolski (2004-07) 20; 2. Sydney Lovelace (2012-15) 13; 3. Rachel Hasser (2000-03) 12; 4. Natalie Contosta (2000-03) 11
Shots: 1. Lauren Podolski (2004-07) 184; 2. Claire Hemkins (2001-04) 164; 3. Sydney Lovelace (2012-15) 153; 4. Jamie Brinck (2000-03) 130
Shots on goal: 1. Lauren Podolski (2004-07) 89; 2. Alison Gasparovich (2008-11) 63; 3. Sydney Lovelace (2012-15) 61; 4. Nichole Tiggs (2002-05) 57
She is at the top of her game. Physically, mentally, in all ways. Sydney Lovelace said it’s gratifying, knowing this long road has brought her to this place.
And it’s almost over.
Lovelace is a 2012 Franklin High School graduate who chose to play soccer at Indiana State University and hasn’t looked back, from the time she made a verbal commitment to ISU as a Franklin sophomore to her standing as one of the top players in the history of the Sycamores’ program.
Now a senior, with the end of her collegiate career in sight, the 5-foot-5 midfielder said it’s all been worth the effort.
“A great experience. I haven’t had any regrets with it,” Lovelace said. “I came in as a freshman, I worked hard, I earned my spot, and I’ve just continued to work hard from there. I want to be at the top. If I don’t finish at the top, I know I’ll regret it, so I’m doing my best to get there.”
An offensive force
Lovelace has 17 points this season with seven goals and three assists. She’s the Indiana State leader in points, which is good. She also leads the Missouri Valley Conference, which is better.
Sycamores coach Erika True believes Lovelace has the game to be MVC Player of the Year.
“She may be one of the most athletic players in the Valley this year,” True said. “She’s bigger, faster and stronger than she ever has been. Throw in her confidence level and her ability to strike the ball with both feet very, very well, and you have a super-dangerous player.”
True will tell you Lovelace “didn’t say a word her freshman year,” but she has developed into a leader that her teammates respect and listen to.
Lovelace, a tri-captain with fellow seniors Sydney Loesing and Kate Johnson, has been part of the program’s leadership group since the spring of her freshman year.
“I’m still not the biggest talker,” Lovelace said. “KJ is more of the talker, and I have her back. I’m more of a lead-by-example type person. My thing is, when you say something, make sure everybody hears you.”
She’s always been one to show up for optional extra training because, in her view, doing less is not an option. The leadership thing is important to her, even if it’s “mean.”
“I try to make the underclassmen better every day,” Lovelace said. “We had upperclassmen when we were younger, and they were hard on us. I guess you could say they were mean to us. They went in on tackles hard, they pushed you to the ground. But looking back, it did nothing but make me better.
“I don’t take anything easy with the underclassmen because they’re going to deal with better players than me. It’s reality. If I can do anything to make them better, it’s part of my job.”
The knee injury
Lovelace had never experienced a major injury before taking the Memorial Stadium field for a Friday night home game against Illinois State on Oct. 4, 2013.
She tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. She remembers it like this:
“End of the first half. I was just running up the sideline. Right in front of my bench, actually. I reached for a ball with my right foot, and my left foot just snapped out of place. Popped, snapped, whatever you want to call it. I knew I tore it before I even hit the ground. I was still midair just thinking in my head, ‘Yep, it’s torn.’
“I’ve had little ankle sprains here and there, but I’ve never had anything big happen, so it was kind of an eye-opener. I felt sorry for myself for the first day or two, then I was like, ‘Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.’ I had surgery two weeks later, and I was really diligent with my recovery program. I got pushed hard in my physical therapy. I can’t say I liked it at the time, but I’m thankful for it now.”
She was back to full strength by the following June. The Sycamores traveled to Morocco in May and played two games, but Lovelace was a spectator.
“I was begging them to let me play, but they didn’t think it was worth the risk,” she said. “I warmed up with the team, so I got to do something.”
Lovelace said there have been no lingering problems with her knee.
“I think I’m stronger than I was before, and I think I’m just as fast as I was before,” she said. “I consider speed to be my biggest strength, and I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be fast. But I still am.”
A date with history
Indiana State traveled to Chicago State for a nonconference game this season on Sept. 18. It was a warm Friday afternoon at Kroc Stadium, and with a crowd of less than 100 on hand, Lovelace made ISU history.
She scored two goals in the first 10 minutes of the match. The first was unassisted. The second got started by Lauren Weigel.
Five minutes later, Lovelace delivered a corner kick that Maddie Orf headed in for a goal. The Sycamores were rolling.
At the 30:21 mark, Lovelace got fouled in the box. It was time for a penalty kick against CSU goalkeeper Audra Wisehart, and Lovelace had no desire to take it.
“I don’t take PKs,” she said. “It just throws me back to senior year of high school when I missed a PK against Brookville, and ever since it’s been in the back of my mind. I just remember I kicked it right over the goal. It scarred me.
“So I fell in the box, and I was looking around. I was like, ‘Does anybody want to take it?’ Ashley Gibbons, she’s a freshman, I asked her if she wanted to take it. She’s like, ‘No, go get your hat trick.’ I knew that we’d never had a hat trick before. As soon as she said that, I was like, ‘You’re right. I’m going to go get a hat trick.’
“We had a comfortable lead, but I was really, really nervous. I knew if I missed it, it would be a regret that I’d have for a very long time. I tried to stay as calm as I possibly could, I kicked it, and it went in.”
Just like that, ISU finally had a player with three goals in a game. She also totaled seven points, another single-game school record.
Lovelace said she’s always prided herself more on assists. But that day, she was proud to be a goal scorer.
“It was a feeling of relief because I’ve always wanted to have a record here,” Lovelace said. “I didn’t really care what record. I just wanted to be remembered for something. To be the first one to do that, it’s a really good feeling.”
One last go-round
Indiana State began the MVC season Friday with a 2-1 loss at Drake. The Sycamores only have six more regular-season games, starting with a nonconference contest at Western Illinois on Sunday.
ISU is 4-7, but there are high hopes for the MVC tournament next month. The team reached the title game in 2012 and 2013, but didn’t make it to the postseason at all last year, an outcome that Lovelace said was unacceptable.
“I would do anything to never have that feeling again,” she said. “I worked really hard over the summer (playing for the Dayton Dutch Lions). That really helped build my confidence up, and I brought that here.”
Lovelace is a scholar-athlete, carrying a grade point average around 3.9. That ranks No. 1 on the soccer team. She’s majoring in athletic training with an applied medicine concentration and hopes to be accepted into a Doctor of Physical Therapy program for graduate work.
“The growth that she’s had over four years has been incredible,” said True, who’s also a Southwest Ohio native — the former Erika Flanders is a 1999 Mason High School graduate and a member of the Mason Athletic Hall of Fame. “She’s blossomed right before my very eyes. I love having the kid around. I think she represents what we want out of our student-athletes.”
Lovelace is happy to say she’s been able to excel academically while being a Division I athlete.
Her career goals are ultimately more important, and she said the 2015 soccer season will likely be her last. Lovelace is on track to graduate May 7, one day after her 22nd birthday.
“Unless some crazy opportunity comes up, I think I’m going to call it quits,” she said. “I’m just going to focus on getting into PT school. If I don’t get accepted, who knows what I’ll end up doing? I might try to find some kind of team to play on.”
Lovelace has played in 61 games at Indiana State, and she’s started every one of them. She doesn’t plan to end her collegiate career with a whimper.
“I’m feeling really good. I’ve done my job the first three years, but I’ve taken it to another level this year,” Lovelace said. “I just want to win. That’s what it comes down to. I don’t want to feel like I did last year.
“I’ve played this game since I was 4, and I’ve played competitively since I was 12. It’s a long time to just think about and be like, ‘Wow, it’s almost over.’ I think that’s why I’m driven more than anything. I hate to say I took it for granted in years past, but I think I did. I don’t think I realized how uneasy I would feel about it coming to an end. So I’m going to try to drag out this season as long as possible.”
About the Author