Senior Spotlight: Allie Williams
Ever since falling in love with the sport at a young age, senior Minnesota State soccer player Allie Williams wanted to be just like her role model: her older sister.
“I have loved soccer since I was a little kid. I grew up watching my older sister play and I wanted to be just like her. I think it’s just the feeling you get when you play, the adrenaline rush when you score or the amazing atmosphere getting to play with your team. It all makes you fall in love with the sport,” Williams said.
Williams watched her sister make it to the collegiate level and play at Truman State University. Seeing her sister love that college experience made the Waukee, Iowa native want the same thing for herself.
“I wanted to be just like her when I was younger. I got to see her play all the time which initially drew me to the sport. As I got older, I got to see how hard she worked and how much that paid off. She loved her college experience, which made me want that same thing. My sister is someone that I look up to and she’s been my role model my whole life. I always just wanted to work extremely hard, accomplish my goals and be a good leader just like her,” Williams said.
Prior to joining MSU, Williams was a three-year starter at Waukee High School. In her junior year, she was named team captain and was nominated for Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year. Williams feels that one of the biggest differences between high school soccer and soccer on the collegiate level is that great culture and determination is what separates teams.
“The biggest difference is the speed of play and the talent level. Once you reach the collegiate level, everyone is talented. It’s the teams that build great culture and have the most determination that go the farthest,” Williams said.
Williams is used to taking on leadership roles, and doing that on this season’s young Maverick team is something she is embracing.
“I always wanted to be the best I could be and make others around me better.
I really just try and lead by example. That means always giving 110% effort, fighting through adversity, being all in with our culture and always being a good teammate. If they see me doing all these things, it gets others to follow along and makes the whole team better,” Williams said.
In her freshman year, Williams appeared in all 24 matches and was second on the team in goals scored, with 10. During that season, her favorite memory as a Mav occurred when the team made it to the Elite Eight. She also recorded a hat trick against the University of Minnesota-Crookston. It was the 11th hat trick in MSU’s history. These accomplishments didn’t mean that Williams wasn’t having to overcome some difficulty when she became a Maverick.
“It’s always difficult joining a new team and starting your first year at the collegiate level. I think I had to learn how to be confident in my playing again, and remember why I play in the first place. I was pretty shy when I first got to Mankato, but once I started to mesh with the team and get used to the pace of college soccer, that’s when I started to really show who I was as a player,” Williams.
In the 2022 season, she was named to the All-NSIC First Team and the NSIC All-Academic Team of Excellence.
Her time as a Mavericks player has had a profound effect on her life off the field.
“It has made such a big impact on me. This team focuses a lot on our culture and who we are as people first before our soccer skills. I have learned in my five years here so many important skills on being a good teammate, friend and person and that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” Williams said.
The Mavs have a current record of 7-1-4 and Williams is feeling positive about the team’s season thus far.
“It has been very exciting so far. We started off extremely strong when we really didn’t know who we were going to be as a team. We have been ranked as high as number five in the nation which I think only motivates us more. We are a young team, which has been cool seeing people step up and rise to the occasions who maybe didn’t play as much last year. I think we haven’t even come close to reaching our full potential, so it will be exciting as the season continues,” Williams said.
Something else that Williams has loved since she was a kid is math, and it happens to be her major as well.
“My major is mathematics, and it’s just because I have loved math my whole life. It is something my brain has always understood and found intriguing and could challenge me,” Williams said.
Williams hopes to reunite with her sister when she graduates.
“I am applying for jobs since I graduate in December, and then from there, will move wherever I find a job. My hope is to move to Kansas City where my sister lives,” Williams said.
Header Photo courtesy of Allie Williams
Write to Mohamed Warsame at mohamed.warsame@mnsu.edu