By: Burke De Boer Sports Editor
There is more to the “beautiful game” than just goal scoring. Passes, dribbles and tackles paint a moving picture from one touchline to the other. And yet, at the end of 90 minutes, goals are what it all comes down to.
Coming into her senior year, Taylor Higa felt driven to make her goals count. Hailing from Manoa, Hawaii, Higa said, “I knew that my previous years weren’t as successful, scoring wise, and didn’t want to end my competitive college career like that.”
She scored two goals a season in each of her past three years. This year it only took the first two games to match that number.
She now boasts four goals and two assists on the season. To put her contributions into perspective, the team holds a 4-4 record, but if you removed the points Higa’s been involved in, the record would only be 0-4-4.
“I just want to make sure I do everything I can to be as successful as I can be for my team and then also for myself,” said Higa. She is also enjoying being positioned in the center of the field. “I feel like I’m more comfortable there. I’ve been feeling a lot more confident lately.”
In the 3-1 victory over Oregon Tech, Higa netted the first goal of gameplay and at the 87th minute linked junior Meli Cortez with a lobbing pass for an exclamation point ending. Mariah Konyn also scored an electrifying goal from outside of the box into the top corner.
Conference play opened with a home loss to Western Washington State University. The GNAC continued to stifle as MSU-Billings slowed the pace of the visiting Wolves.
“It’s still really early in the season so we’re not too worried. But we do know that we need to start getting some wins,” Higa said after the match.
They capitalized on their next chance for a win, 2-1 at home over Northwest Nazarene. Phoebe Hendry scored her first goal of the year off a Higa assist, and Konyn hit the game winner over the goalie.
Your next chance to cheer on the Wolves is on Oct. 9 against Central Washington on the WOU Soccer Field. The match will kick off at 12 p.m.\
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
