 "Photo: File photo")
For Maegan Wilber and Texas Tech soccer’s other seniors, the end of the soccer season means a new beginning in their lives.
She’ll have something to be proud of as she graduates though — Wilber, along with nine other Tech players, earned an All-Big 12 Conference Academic Team selection Tuesday evening.
“I’m definitely glad to be on that list,” Wilber said. “I work hard in school. I’m kind of an undercover nerd, so I better get on it because I study.”
Maggie Fete, Emmie Bennett, Sarabeth Clopton, Brittney Harrison, Megan Hoffert, Jennifer Kammerer, Katie Hinds, Casey McCall and Karen De Leon also received All-Big 12 Academic Team selections.
Those aren’t the only honors the Red Raiders are receiving as Tech moves into the offseason after losing to Kansas in the play-in game for the final spot in the Big 12 tournament on Monday.
When the Red Raiders get back on the field next fall, they’ll also boasts four other All-Big 12 selections in Taylor Lytle, Dawn Ward, Tiffini Smith and Morgan Johnson. Ward, Smith and Johnson made the All-Big 12 Newcomer Team.
Lytle made was named First Team All-Big 12 — the first time a Tech player has made the first team since the 1998 season.
“As far as the freshmen, we knew this was a special class the first time they took the field,” said Tech coach Tom Stone. “I thought it was fitting (Lytle) played on a high level with all the pressure all season.”
All this comes after the Red Raiders finished their first non-losing season since 1998.
Lytle said the loss to Kansas leaves the young players wanting more. She also said the other returning Red Raiders will spend the rest of the semester catching up with their schoolwork and improving their conditioning for a run at the Big 12 Championship in 2010.
“I think a lot of the younger players are just looking forward to next year and proving to everyone we should have been in the Big 12 (Conference tournament),” Lytle said. “I think we’ll bring back a lot of experience. A lot of the freshmen played a lot of minutes and the fact that we lost like that, I think we’ll come back with a lot of vengeance.”
When the team returns from a shortened summer vacation, the soccer program will have to prepare their incoming freshman class to fill some big shoes left by Tech’s seniors.
The 2010 season marks the first time Stone and his staff will have a full four classes they brought in through their efforts at Tech with the exception of just a handful of fifth-year players.
Stone said he cannot talk about specific recruits until they sign their letters on intent, but he also said he believes the staff is done recruiting for the year.
However, Stone said the soccer program’s success is a direct result of recruiting, and he will not bring in players that the staff does not believe would be successful in the classroom.
Additionally, Stone said injured star forward Brittney Harrison, a senior, may receive extra eligibility after she was tackled from behind on a foul before conference play began.
If Harrison is granted extra eligibility by the NCAA, Tech will lose just six seniors on a roster of 27 players.
As far as Wilber is concerned, she said she looks forward to life after soccer.
The senior midfielder plans on attending law school in the near future in California.
Wilber said she will miss playing soccer competitively — a game she has played since she was five — in addition to being around her friends still on the team. However, the absence of collegiate soccer in her life will allow her to enjoy more recreational activities such as playing a guitar she just purchased.
“I kind of look at it as a natural progression,” she said. “I’m going to do other stuff, some more school stuff maybe. I’m taking guitar lessons now that I don’t have practice or have to worry about figuring everything out with soccer.”
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