A position change is one of the biggest adjustments an athlete can make in their careers.
Senior Zoe Higgins is transitioning from a central midfielder to the Tigers’ starting center forward for her final season on the soccer team.
“She switched up front last spring, just as something experimental,” coach Brian Lee said. “We really struggled to find a spot for her in the lineup that she could settle into and she was someone we really wanted in the lineup. We tried her up front in the spring and it went really well and she’s taken to it like a fish to water.”
The switch to forward wasn’t too big of a change for Higgins since she played as the central forward on her high school team, where she was a two-time All-Northwest Champions League.
“It was a really easy transition and I think it’s a good fit for me this season with all the people I have around me,” Higgins said. “We have really good attackers out wide, and they just know how to kick the ball into the eighteen and I just find the goal and try to knock it in.”
A transfer from the University of Oregon, Higgins arrived at LSU for her junior season and has since been a mainstay in the lineup.
In her first season with the Tigers, she appeared in all 19 games as a midfielder, starting five, with one goal during a 3-0 win against Ole Miss.
This season, Higgins is already faring much better than last season, starting in all five games and scoring in four. She now leads the LSU scoresheet this season with four goals and one assist in the first five games.
“It feels really good since it’s my senior season, but honestly, I have to give the credit to my teammates because they’re the ones playing the balls to me to score,” Higgins said. “I just have to tap it in, so really hats go off to them.”
Even though the transition process is much easier than expected, Higgins approaches the game a lot differently now than she would as a midfielder.
“My main focus now is just trying to score,” Higgins said. “Last year, it was more distributing the ball and connecting passes.”
After scoring the equalizer in a 3-1 win against Austin Peay, Higgins became the team’s leading scorer. As a senior, Higgins has developed a leadership position on the team, which helps her and the other forwards to feed off of each other.
“Usually once you score one goal, you get a lot of energy and I think after that first goal went in, it brought our energy and hope up,” Higgins said after the game. “We’re a really quick team and we have a quick attack, so we just kept getting the ball forward at people’s feet and we were running at their back line and just whip it in.”
Higgins has proven time and time again that Lee made the right decision by changing her position.
“We put her there, but that’s really all Zoe,” Lee said. “She’s a super hard worker and she’s improved a ton during her couple years with us. She’s just getting what she deserves right now. If you work that hard, and you’re that good a person and you do all the right things, [then] things tend to work out.”