Abby Steele, the soft-spoken freshman goalkeeper of the Oregon women’s soccer team, listens to Tech N9ne as a pregame ritual.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4315&SPID=237&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205088865&Q_SEASON=2011@@
Yes, really.
“I’m really calm on the field,” Steele says. “And listening to that — just the beat and everything — gets me really into the game.”
Steele has been playing soccer at a high level since she was young, starting out playing club ball as an eight-year-old in a U10 league. Before that, Steele played in local recreational leagues her dad coached.
It was in those rec league games that Steele first started playing in goal, but it wasn’t because she wanted to.
“When I was in rec, my dad always put me in goal because he was my coach,” Steele says. “Nobody else wanted to play (in goal).”
Steele played a few seasons of club soccer as a field player, but moved to goalkeeping full time at a young age. Even at that point, though, she wasn’t entirely on board with the idea.
“It took me a while,” Steele says. “I was like ‘What is this? I don’t want to dive for the ball.’”
Now the Santa Rosa, Calif., native relishes the idea of being in goal, where she has played in all 14 games for the Ducks this year, including eight starts.
Steele has put up impressive numbers in goal for the Ducks, with 52 saves and a goals-against average of 1.49.
In her first start of the year Steele and the Ducks took on Santa Clara, ranked 16th nationally at the time, and Steele responded to the pressure by holding the Broncos scoreless as the Ducks played to a 0-0 draw.
“I like really high-tempo games because I can get more into it rather than just staying back there and watching,” Steele says.
In an early-season road trip to Louisiana for a tournament at LSU, Steele’s confidence was shaken for the first time as the Ducks had their first two losses of the season, including a particularly tough-to-swallow 5-0 loss to No. 20 Illinois.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=237&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205269475@@
Steele said that while it wasn’t easy to see five balls go into her net against the Illini, a goalkeeper has to have a short memory.
“You can’t let it get into your head,” she says. “Otherwise they’re gonna score so many more goals on you.”
Perhaps the high point of the season for Steele came in a loss to No. 2 UCLA. Steele made five critical saves against the powerhouse Bruins before eventually conceding a goal.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=237&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205305187@@
It is in high-profile games like that, according to head coach Tara Erickson, that Steele truly shines. No matter who the opponent is, Erickson can count on Steele to bring her A-game — and that poise is a valuable asset for a keeper playing in a conference with two top-six teams.
“One thing I would say about Abby is that in big games she seems to really be able to dial in and focus,” Erickson says. “The bigger the game, the bigger she steps up, which is rare for a freshman.”
The freshman keeper took over in goal for senior Lindsay Parlee, who has been a valuable asset in practice. Steele says that Parlee has taught her crucial lessons about not focusing on opponent rankings.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4315&SPID=237&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=204881935&Q_SEASON=2011@@
Although she has yet to earn a cap for the U.S., Steele on two occasions trained at a U18 national team camp in 2009 and trained with a U20 team in April of 2011.
“It’s cool playing with such great players and knowing that one day they’re going to be on the full team,” Steele says.
If she really puts her mind to it, Steele thinks that she too has the potential to play with the women’s national team.
Off the field, meanwhile, Steele has had tremendous academic success. In high school, she was a cum laude student for all eight semesters, and Steele said that her successes in the classroom and on the field aren’t unrelated.
Indeed, academics played a role in Steele’s decision to come to Eugene in the first place. She didn’t know about the academics at Oregon at first, but once she looked into it she realized it was actually a good fit.
“I just felt like I could get the best education and play the sport I love,” Steele says.
That academic success was not lost on Erickson in the recruiting process. One of the things she and her staff consider is whether players can succeed not just as athletes, but as students as well.
“Abby fit that profile right away,” Erickson says.
With the Ducks’ season winding down, Steele says the team is focused on playing their remaining games with heart and intensity, and looking to build on their success.
“Even after losing the games that we have,” Steele says. “I’m still really confident that we can pull it together.”