Ashlee Stallinga, a student at Dordt College has been working on some feature stories. Here’s her first product…
Pass, set…SAVE?
After a decade on the volleyball court, Steph Goslinga has decided to lace up her soccer cleats instead.
The Dordt College junior made the switch this fall, after Tim Klein, keeper coach for the soccer team, approached her in the spring.
“Klein just threw the idea out there,” Goslinga said. “The coaches really gave me an opportunity. They knew they’d need a goalie, and I’m very comfortable using my hands.”
Goslinga was a setter for the Defender volleyball team for her first two years of college. She had been playing that position since 5th grade, including a year on the state-qualifying Unity Christian High School team.
But when last year’s starting goalie, Jenna Noteboom, changed her major and transferred colleges, Goslinga caught Klein’s eye.
“We did a little bit of recruiting—not convincing,” Klein said. “We raised the question. We knew we were only going to have one keeper and needed another.”
Goslinga decided to give the new sport a shot, joining Rosalyn DePooter, the team’s second goalie. DePooter played in her freshman year, and was brought back to the soccer field after taking a season off.
“I wasn’t getting as much playing time as I wanted [in volleyball],” Goslinga said. “But I’ve loved sports all my life. [I] want to compete, [I] want to play, I want to be part of a team. I’d rather find something new than quit.”
Goslinga has played sports year round for much of her life. In grade school, she played flag football and got her first taste of soccer.
“I was a good goalie when I was younger,” she said. “But that’s when the goal was just two cones….”
When she got to high school, she was on the volleyball, basketball, and track teams, and played softball in the summer. There aren’t many sports she hasn’t tried.
“Um…I didn’t do golf,” she said.
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Going from setter to keeper, Goslinga’s still playing the net. However, the technique is a little different.
“She’s been making adjustments since she started working in the spring,” Klein said. “She used to use a setting technique, hitting the ball up in the air. She would crouch down to get below the ball, catching it at her eyes.”
Goslinga has strong hands from years of basketball and volleyball, but she needed to learn to use them.
“She needed an understanding of soccer,” Klein said. “The ball does not come straight towards her, like volleyball. It curves. She needed to learn to read the ball.”
She also needed to adjust to a new style of play.
“It’s a contact sport—they’re used to it, but it’s pretty rough,” she said. “It’s kind of exciting.”
Goslinga has been working hard to get comfortable in her position. “When you aren’t familiar with it, you just have to focus that much more,” she said.
“In technique and confidence, she’s come a long way,” Klein said.
Goslinga credits Klein and head coach Dave Schenk with her improving skills.
“When you don’t know what you’re doing, you rely on the coaches,” she said.
Klein worked with her in both the spring and the summer, to help her feel more natural in the new sport.
“He knows what he’s talking about,” Goslinga said. “Without a coach like that, it would be hard to switch.”
Although Goslinga’s strong hands well-equipped her for her new position, not everything comes naturally to her.
“I’m still hesitant to choose a partner for foot skills…I don’t want them to lose,” she said. “My favorite part of practice is when they say, ‘Keepers go with Tim!’” That’s when I get to use my hands. That’s when Rose [DePooter] and I get to have all the fun.”
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Goslinga might keep one or two of her teammates from winning in foot drills, but she’s certainly not hurting the team when it comes to game time.
The team is currently 7-1, on track for a comparable record to last season’s 18-1-1, a Nationals-qualifying finish.
Goslinga has started in all eight games so far. She’s had 27 saves, and been keeper for four shut outs. In two of those shut-outs, Dordt won 1-0, so the pressure was on. But she handles it well.
“Even my first game ever, I wasn’t super nervous,” she said
She has allowed six goals, including both goals in the 1-2 loss against Dakota Wesleyan.
“Those ones you allow…it sticks in your mind,” she said.
However, she has full confidence in her teammates to back her up when she’s in the net. One teammate in particular she mentions is leading scorer Kate Du Mez, who has 11 goals this season.
In a game against College of St. Mary, Goslinga remembers, “They scored a couple, and so [Du Mez] just came back and scored two for us.”
But Goslinga does not limit her praise to one teammate. “I’m so impressed with them all,” she said. “I knew they were good, but…[now I know] they work so hard. It really drives me.”
“As for fitting in, she’s doing great,” Coach Klein said. “The team wanted someone who would be willing to practice and work hard, someone who would want to be there. That’s her attitude. She really meshed with the team.”
“I’m most often treated as an upperclassman who doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Goslinga said.
As such, she hasn’t had to deal with too much grief for being a new member. She did have to stand on a chair in Perkins and serenade the restaurant. “But other than that, I haven’t really been initiated yet,” she said.
Goslinga had a hard time leaving her volleyball team, but she’s been having a blast learning something new.
“I didn’t know I’d be so excited about it,” she said.