Solano Soccer Club

By Mike Corpos
DAILY REPUBLIC
FAIRFIELD — Maybe Katie Knopp will get to play a complete season her senior year. That’s one of her goals for 2010, anyway.

As it is, the former Solano Community College soccer star and junior college All-America selection had to sit out part of her 2009 season at San Jose State University. She also redshirted her second year at Solano with a broken collarbone, and sat out several matches last year after re-breaking it.

A junior now, Knopp missed almost three weeks late in the 2009 season because of illness, but that didn’t stop the backup forward from helping the team with a pair of goals as the Spartans had their best season ever, winning the Western Athletic Conference regular season championship.

Knopp said the differences between junior college and NCAA Division I competition were apparent right away. “The pace of play is a lot faster,” she said. “Like my coach says, you have to be spot-on with everything you do.”

Ultimately, the change was more than she expected and it took some getting used to.

“Probably the biggest adjustment was dealing with the early-morning practices in the spring,” she said. “And with all the traveling we did, it’s hard to keep up with your schoolwork.”

Still, Knopp credits the team’s senior leadership for taking charge and getting the team on the right track after a bumpy 0-4 start. “They set the example for everyone and everyone else stepped up,” she said.She said the team finally started gelling on a two-match road trip to Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.

While on the East Coast, the Spartans put together routs of Howard and Lafayette to start a 14-match unbeaten streak that carried the team into the final game of the regular season.

“It was fun getting to travel a lot,” Knopp said of her first Division I season. As for her final season of eligibility, Knopp said she hopes to play the whole year for the first time since her freshman season at Solano when she scored 25 goals for the Falcons. “We’re hoping to be as successful,” she said. “We have to come in working hard out of the (winter) break. Last year our spring set up our whole season.”