After being elected a four-time team captain for her high school team at Courtland High, setting a school record for most goals of all time with 123 and being named Freelance Player of the Year for two straight years, freshman midfielder Kara Blosser had an impressive resume coming to N.C. State. Nine games into her collegiate career, Blosser’s dominance in high school has transferred over to the college game, leading the Pack to a 5-2-1 record and leading the team in goals, with six.
“Kara has done a good job for us this year,” coach Steve Springthorpe said. “Certainly coming in as a freshman is not an easy thing and a lot of adjustments have to occur.”
While Blosser makes the adjustment look very simple on the field, she admits that switching from high school or club soccer to a college soccer team is an entirely different level of play.
“It is nothing like high school, everything is completely different,” Blosser said. “Coming in, it scared the crap out of me, but it was awesome, because I am finally doing what I always dreamed of doing as a kid, which is playing at an ACC level. But it is a different level, everyone is quicker, everyone is faster. You can’t play the balls over top and you can’t out-run everyone.”
Being a freshman, Blosser remembers scoring her first goal and the relief that came from scoring, especially after all she had to go through to finally score it.
“In our scrimmage the first game I got fouled and had the opportunity for a penalty kick, but my coach had another player take it,” Blosser said. “And then in my first game I hit the crossbar twice and I was so frustrated, but finally when I got it, it just felt really awesome.”
Blosser’s athleticism and determination have played a huge part in scoring her six goals. Because she is a midfielder she is responsible for playing both defense and offense, and when an offensive opportunity presents itself, she makes the best of it.
“She is our leading goal scorer and one of the things she is capable of doing is being a finder of the ball and on our key set pieces she is able to find the ball and win the header with her height and athleticism,” Springthorpe said. “Also players around her have created a lot of space for her and she has been able to find that space behind and over the top of the defense and capitalize.”
Even after experiencing such success at such a young age, Blosser still knows her role on the team and respects the older players on the team that have much more experience playing college soccer.”I don’t really say anything in practice because I know they have so much more experience than me. Yes, I might have scored the most goals, but they truly have played much more college soccer and they know what is going on,” Blosser said. “I just take every chance to listen to what they say to me and try to become a better player.”
Springthorpe credits Blosser’s hot start to her physical fitness, her work ethic on and off the field and her love for the game.
“She is extremely fit and she has been able to play a number of times 90 minutes for us and that credits her fitness,” Springthorpe said. “She is a competitor and loves to play the game. She has such a great work ethic and a desire for the team to be successful. For her, the game is a lot of fun and she puts everything she has into it on the field, at practice and off the field. ”
Blosser knows that the success she has experienced so far this season is going to become a lot harder to come by as ACC play gears up, and she has to be up for the challenge both physically and mentally.
“Everyone has talked about how ACC play is completely different,” Blosser said. “The ACC is the best conference for soccer and every game is going to be huge. Every day at practice and after games that we won this season we understand that this is nothing like how the ACC is going to be. It is best for us as young players to know we just need to listen to the older players to help guide and lead us into ACC play.”
