Santa Clara midfielder strives hard for spot in Sydney
Nikki Serlenga didn’t expect to be vying for an Olympic team spot.
She used to think about graduating from Santa Clara, finding a 9-5 job and starting a family.
“But since I had the opportunity to play and I’m a possibility for the Olympics,” Serlenga said, “I think about the national team.”
She’s indeed an Olympic contender. And the San Diego product has a job waiting for her with the Atlanta entry of the WUSA.
Under Coach April Heinrichs, Serlenga has been alternating with Lorrie Fair at the defensive midfield position while Michelle Akers has been injured.
Serlenga, whom Santa Clara’s Jerry Smith calls the “most complete player I’ve ever coached,” added a new wrinkle to her game when she scored a hat trick against Costa Rica in the Gold Cup. She displayed a powerful shot on her goals, striking each from at least 17 yards out.
Serlenga scored just three goals, to go with 13 assists, in her senior season.
“There’s a little buzz [around the team] since she scored the goals against Costa Rica,” Heinrichs said. “She has one of the best techniques of striking the ball on the team. She has a little bit of nasty in her defensively. She can play a great through ball. Both sides of her game are strong.”
SCHOOL MOST IMPORTANT. Last fall, national team life was not important to Serlenga, who hadn’t yet played for the senior team.
An experience with the U.S. under-21 team and her commitment to her studies turned her off to the program.
She trained with the U-21s while a sophomore at Santa Clara and didn’t do well. She later turned down offers to play for the team so she could focus on school. The 22-year-old senior, who has at least two quarters left before she graduates, majors in psychology and minors in sociology.
“Graduation was more important to me,” Serlenga said.
Then two things happened. First, she impressed then-Virginia coach Heinrichs with her play in Santa Clara’s semifinal loss to Notre Dame last December. Second, she got another call to play for the national team. Lauren Gregg and Jay Hoffman convinced her to play for the United States in the Australia Cup, a tournament the senior women boycotted during their salary dispute with the Federation. Serlenga got her first cap and first goal in an 8-1 rout of the Czech Republic on Jan. 7.
PLAYING HARD. Heinrichs brought Serlenga into her first camp as coach in February. But Serlenga was not the same player she had been in December.
“I was concerned about maybe her mental toughness, maybe her fitness, or maybe she was intimidated about her first national team camp, which we often see,” Heinrichs said.
Nevertheless, Heinrichs, relying on what she had seen at the College Cup, brought Serlenga back for the U.S. team’s pre-Algarve Cup camp. And Serlenga improved, though not without some prompting.
She was still not fit enough, and she questioned the importance of playing small-sided games. Serlenga preferred to play 11 v. 11. Playing hard in what she perceived to be important games – and coasting through less important events – was a trend from her college days.
“I’m not the type of player who steps up against Alabama,” Serlenga said last fall. “If I’m going to play good five times out of the season, I’d rather play good against Notre Dame, North Carolina, Florida.”
But Heinrichs made her change.
“We told her, ‘It’s the importance you place on fitness and the ability to train that’s the key,'” Heinrichs said. “‘You can’t hide in a 4 v. 4 game, and you have to place importance on that.'”
Serlenga responded, as evidenced by her scoring outburst against Costa Rica. The Ticas are even less challenging than some of Serlenga’s college opponents.
Serlenga’s national team commitments won’t permit her to graduate anytime soon. That’s fine, because her sights are on Sydney.
“My chances are as good as anyone else’s right now,” Serlenga said. “As long as I get there and work my butt off, that’s all I can do.”
by Soccer America associate editor Dean Caparaz