Wake Forest Athletics
Freshman Katie Stengel Shines for Wake Forest
10/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 28, 2010
By Calais Zagarow - WakeForestSports.com
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The typical college soccer player spends her entire career hoping that one day she will be a star. Whether she wants to break a school record, be named Player of the Week by her conference, or even just score a game-winning goal, she struggles to adjust to the ever-changing rosters and competitors until finally, sometime down the road, she finds the limelight.
For Wake Forest freshman forward Katie Stengel, it didn't take nearly that long.
Since the 2010 women's soccer season began in August, Stengel has already tied Wake Forest's single-season records for goals (14) and points (32). She also leads the entire Atlantic Coast Conference in goals and points and is the highest-scoring freshman in all of Division I. With three multi-goal games, five multi-point games and five game-winning goals this season, Stengel is by far one of the best players in the country.
"She wants to score and create goals in every game, and that's the mentality that you want to have from a forward," said head coach Tony da Luz. "You would have a hard time finding better forwards in the conference than Katie."
Stengel's accelerated path to success began before she had even started kindergarten. At the age of four, she started playing as the only girl on a series of all-male recreational teams that her father coached. Once she was old enough, Stengel was able to start playing on the competitive female teams in her town. She continued to play throughout middle school and earned four varsity letters as a forward for her high school team in Melbourne, Fla.
At one point during high school, Stengel's team played at a tournament in North Carolina. Her coach, a Wake Forest alumnus, brought her over to Winston-Salem to watch the Demon Deacon men's soccer team play South Florida in the NCAA Elite Eight.
After watching the game, walking through campus and looking around, Stengel decided to research Wake Forest and contact head coach Tony da Luz. She had been looking at several schools in Florida and on the East Coast, but Wake was the one that had stood out the most.
"I looked at Florida State, Florida, Georgia, Duke and some other ACC schools. I liked that Wake was smaller with a major emphasis on academics and athletics," says Stengel. "I figured it would challenge me and allow me to come out with a good degree after playing for four years."
Soon after choosing Wake Forest, Stengel graduated from Viera High School as the valedictorian, a member of the National Honor Society and the 4A Florida Player of the Year.
Stengel was selected to the U.S. U-18 team for the La Manga Tournament in La Manga, Spain along with two other incoming Wake Forest freshman soccer players, Rachel Nuzzolese and Aubrey Bledsoe.
"It was really cool to have three Wake recruits on our team. I had never seen such high-level players, especially Aubrey," says Stengel. "She started every minute of every game and played amazingly. I was shocked because I had never seen such a good goalkeeper before."
Stengel was also impressed by the ability she saw in her fellow forward Nuzzolese, whom she substituted in and out with throughout the tournament.
"It was always a competition between us; we were always pushing each other to get better," says Stengel. "We are definitely alike players and still today at Wake, we try to make each other better. We always play 100 percent and try to help each other with our different strengths and weaknesses."
According to Stengel, her personal strength is not her propensity for scoring, so much as it is her ability to hold onto the ball and face her opponents one-on-one.
Ironically, despite the fact that she leads the ACC in goals and the country in overall goals for freshmen, scoring is what Stengel believes she needs to work on the most.
"I can always improve on finishing. I've been set up many different times during games and didn't put the goal away," says Stengel. "It would help us score and do a lot better in games."
"She's never satisfied," added da Luz. "She has an attitude that no matter how many goals she scores, she's not satisfied when she misses a shot or loses the ball. She's very self-motivated and competitive and has high standards."
If she and her teammates can continue to improve and play well, Stengel believes that they are fully capable of reaching their season and career goals: both the ACC and NCAA titles.
"I just want to develop into a better player and help our team be as strong as we possibly can be," says Stengel. "I want us to accomplish as many goals as we have set. I think we all want an NCAA ring, so that's the biggest goal for us as a team."
Along with an NCAA title, Stengel has her heart set on playing soccer professionally once she graduates from Wake Forest in 2014.
"Since I was four years old, I've always wanted to play in the Olympics with the U.S. team and professionally in the WPS (Women's Professional Soccer)," says Stengel. "And if that unfortunately folds, I want to play in Sweden or Germany."
Stengel also has her eyes set on one day pursuing a career in medicine after she earns a degree in either health and exercise science or biology from Wake Forest.
However, for now, Stengel is looking forward to enjoying a great post-season and three more years with the Demon Deacon teammates she has already come to love.
"I definitely wouldn't be where I am without my team," says Stengel. "They have helped me with every single goal; I wouldn't have been able to score any without them. I'm definitely happy to have the team that I do."
