By Andrew Nelson, Contributor
The Omaha women’s soccer team has had an up and down start to the season, but some upper classmen leadership will be key to the rest of the long season ahead. The Lady Mavericks snapped their three straight road losses with a win last Sunday, but have more road games remain. One of the upper classmen that is sure to step up is junior midfielder and Omaha native, Marquette Pick.
Pick enters her third season as a collegiate soccer player, and her second as a Maverick. Pick, a Millard North grad, began her career at Iowa State in 2012 before transferring to UNO last season.
“With my situation at Iowa State I just wasn’t very happy there, and I knew that at UNO I’d be back at home,” Pick said. “I checked it out, and I was initially recruited by UNO out of high school so I talked to Don and we got everything worked out. It’s been really good since then and I’m glad I made the switch.”
Marquette played in 18 matches and started one her freshmen season at ISU, and even played a career high 48 minutes against then No. 16 Virginia Tech. She was also a Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll selection.
Last season she made her Maverick debut at midfielder playing in 16 games while starting 15 of them on an Omaha team that went 3-11-2 last season. The Mavericks already have one ‘W’ notched in the win column this year, and another win in an exhibition match at the end of the summer. That exhibition win just happened to come against none other than the Iowa State Cyclones.
“It was insane beating ISU at home. We played amazing, and everyone was pumped up to beat a Big 12 school. It was something that definitely made me super happy.”
So what would be the hardest transition from a Big 12 school like Iowa State to a smaller Division- 1 school in UNO?
“The hardest thing I would say was just how big Iowa State was, and then coming to UNO it’s a lot different as far as classroom sizes go. Classroom sizes are a lot bigger at Iowa State. There classes can be up to 300 plus, and here it’s a lot smaller, but I kind of like it small a lot better.”
Entering her second season as a full-time starter at UNO, you’d expect her to have some goals in store for the upcoming season at a chance to improve last season’s record for a young Omaha soccer team.
“Individually as a player, I want to just go out there and do my absolute best, and now that I’m an upper classmen step up and lead the team. As a team this year, we are so much better and all have great chemistry together. I think we can really pull out a lot of wins. I try to be a leader, but I mostly try to show it on the field.”
The junior midfielder will be looking to help the Lady Mavs continue success and build off of their recent home win. The Mavs will travel to College of Charleston and Northern Colorado before coming home to face Creighton Sept. 21 at Caniglia Field.
