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When most students were reacquainting themselves with their favorite beds at home, Rachel Shea ’11 kicked off her October Break with two goals and a major contributing role in Vassar women’s soccer team’s 5-0 win over Mount St. Mary College. Shea, an offensive center forward, channeled her inner Amazon and repeatedly broke enemy lines, creating and capitalizing on holes in her opponents’ defenses during the Oct. 20 game.
On the field, Shea possesses a powerful grace that both intimidates and awes. She is dedicated to her position and is always ready to check back, receive or lay off to wing. Furthermore, Shea is a team player whose commitment to her team is evident even over a plate of onion rings at the All Campus Dining Center.
Shea has been thinking with her feet since the ripe age of five. Soccer has been an omnipresent force in her life, and her dedication has been rewarded with positions of leadership both in high school at Kingswood-Oxford in West Hartford, Conn. and at Vassar.
Shea has been scoring goals for the Brewers since her freshman year. Vassar recruited her along with six other teammates at a summer camp program.
Shea has traveled through Vassar with her team as a constant support system, and as a result, she finds herself inspired to play harder because of her affection for the team.
Shea easily concedes that her teammates are her best friends. It is this bond that pushes a team and fosters growth and an unwillingness to settle for anything less than a sweeping victory. Shea does not hesitate to admit that the team has only improved over the course of her tenure at Vassar. She was quick to attribute such development to the overall quality of the group and the shared passion they possess for the sport.
When pressed to define her soccer career with a single, exhilarating moment, Shea, after taking a moment to wrap her mind around a lifetime of soccer, recalled the final conference weekend of last season. In the last two minutes of regular play, Shea scored the goal that pushed the game into overtime. This Herculean feat was accompanied by rain and muck, and Shea describes the day with a glint of fondness in her eyes.
She recounts, “We played so well, and it was in the rain, and the field was a pit of mud. It was really fun—a great day!” Sitting across from Shea and hearing her recount such an exciting game-changing moment, one can not help but visualize a team of Brewers soaked with mud as they cheer Shea onwards.
Shea’s name peppers the women’s soccer page of the Vassar Athletics website with seemingly reckless abandon. It is as if she is there to oppose every enemy striker or to tame each rogue ball or sneak in for a goal when all is at its most bleak.
Shea is a fighter, a leader, a captain and a friend, but most of all she is a darn good soccer player. We are lucky to have her charging through the muck, pursuing goal after goal after goal, for one more year.
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