Neuqua Valley junior defender Lauren Milani thinks she won’t play soccer in college.
Milani does have an idea about what she wants to study, however.
“I want to go into media production,” she said. “I’m in a media production class at Neuqua. I really like it.”
So will Milani be working in front of the camera or behind it?
“Behind it,” she said.
That will be an interesting change of pace for Milani, who is used to being in front of the camera on the soccer field. The three-year starter has excelled in whatever role she has played, and there have been several.
“She’s huge for us,” first-year Neuqua Valley coach Arnoldo Gonzalez said. “Usually other coaches ask me, ‘Is she a senior?’ Nope, but she plays like one.”
That’s been crucial for a team that has just four seniors. The Wildcats (3-5) have a cadre of players who are talented yet inexperienced.
Milani’s versatility and calmness under pressure have helped them steady the ship. The Wildcats upset St. Charles North 2-1 on April 15 and went 1-1 in group play at the Naperville Invitational, beating Sandburg 7-0 and hanging tough with unbeaten St. Charles East before losing 4-1 on Friday.
“We really know how to keep fighting to the last minute,” Milani said after the game against St. Charles East. “We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in, but we also knew that we weren’t going to give it to them easy. We were going to put up a fight.”
Milani does that on defense and frequently on offense. As a sophomore, Milani was a stopper, someone who usually focuses solely on marking one player at all times.
“Last year, my coach put me on the best girl, and I would kind of just track her around,” she said. “We have a new coach, obviously, and I’m kind of playing a different role. It’s not a super big change because for club I play the same position.”
Milani plays right outside defender, although she doesn’t always stay back. Gonzalez has encouraged her to make runs up the wing and feed balls to the forwards.
“Defensively, she continues to work hard on understanding when to get back and when not to,” Gonzalez said. “But she’s really adding to the attack and whipping balls in. That’s where she has really surprised us.”
Outside defenders who can push forward without compromising their defense can turn a good offense into a deadly one. The Wildcats have two of them. Freshman Allessandra Russo plays a similar role on the left side.
“She’s recognizing when she has the space, and we tell her, ‘When you have the space, just take it,'” Gonzalez said of Milani. “She’s been doing a nice job of getting up the field, playing those nice diagonals to the second post.
“On the opposite side of her you have Russo, who does the same thing. So we’re really blessed to be able to attack on both sides.”
Milani said the new role suits her strengths and thinks the team will produce some highlights as the season goes on.
“We’ve already made improvements from the first game,” she said. “We have a lot of younger players and not a lot of older people, so I think that over the year the team will improve.”
As for personal highlights, well, just putting on the uniform makes the cut for Milani.
“Over the last three years, it’s definitely been the highlight of my high school years,” she said. “As a team, we do a lot of stuff outside of the field, and at practice we’re always having fun.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
