Photos courtesy of Liz Berie.
Senior forward Beth Millican scored six goals last week to lead Point Park to a 4-0
win over Washington Adventist and an 11-0 win over Midway.

Playing college soccer was not in Erica Roney’s plans when she looked into Point Park even though she had been playing it for majority of her life.

Four years later, the now senior is the starting goalkeeper who has recorded seven shutouts, including an 11-0 win this past Saturday against Midway University.

“I actually had no intention on playing college soccer, which was a surprise,” senior Business and Marketing major Roney said.

When she began looking into colleges, it was Point Park’s marketing and journalism programs that drew her in. However, looking to recruit new players, Point Park coach Mark Platts came to an old high school game of Roney’s when she was a senior and took interest in her, along with some of her teammates, she explained. So she decided she might as well attend a few practices; afterwards, she realized she really liked the other players

“It all kind of worked out and fell into place,” Roney said.

Along with coming to these practices, she also had a former coach who influenced her decision to come to Point Park. This coach was a goalkeeper, just like Roney, who had played soccer in college and ended up dropping out.

“She said it was one of the biggest regrets she had, so that kind of lead me into continuing to play here,” Roney said.

Knowing she could have four more years of playing time, she decided to join the team as a freshman, despite having to compete against four other goalkeepers on the team.

“I never had that in high school,” Roney said. “I was the only goalkeeper for my last three years there so I never had to deal with competing with other goalkeepers.”

She enjoyed the competition, which helped her to build and grow her skills. That year, she was able to start in a few games.

“It was neat to be able to play with the upperclassman on the team,” Roney said.

The next two years she went on to continue to play goalkeeper. She enjoyed watching the team grow and develop.

“I had never really had goalkeeper training before so it was nice to be in a program that focused on that,” Roney said.

It’s this year that has some of the main highlights of her time playing soccer, according to Roney.

“I’ve enjoyed my time this season as the starting goalkeeper,” Roney said.

This year, Roney feels like the team has started to connect more and that each player has been more comfortable with the positions they are in.

“It’s neat to see how the program is growing and what I’m seeing this year is different than it has been in my past years playing,” Roney said.

Roney feels like the players are all focused this year on winning the conference championship, which they have fallen short of the past few years. This year, she likes the team’s chances because her teammates are doing great things.

“The defense that I have is incredible, I think there is a lot of trust between us all working all the way up the field,” Roney said.

That trust and admiration goes both ways.

“She’ll make saves that literally leave us speechless sometimes, and she just acts like its nothing,” said teammate Anna Wyss. “I think that really says a lot about her character.”

Wyss finds Roney to be one of the strongest and most consistent players they have, and what makes her stand out the most is how humble she is.

Similarly, teammate Paige Manning feels that Roney shows dedication, talent, and leadership at every practice and game.

“Something that stands out about Erica that happens time and time again is her dedication to the team,” Manning said. “She does whatever it takes to put her team first.”

She’s using her head, too.

“She showed a lot of mental toughness and has come up big in a lot of our games this year with some big saves to keep us in the game,” women’s soccer head coach Maggie Kuhn said.

Kuhn feels that this ability to make key saves is what you ultimately want out of a goalkeeper, as it helps the team stay in the game and win.

“In years past, she had three goal keepers to compete against and she put her time in taking her bumps, but she never gave up to be our first goalkeeper this year,” Kuhn said.

This she feels shows a lot about Roney’s character.

It’s also important to note that Roney has a team in front of her that does everything they can to make sure they do not put her in too many situations in which she has had to make big saves.

“I think that a lot of it has to do with the character of the team knowing that she is our only goalkeeper and we have to protect her as much as we can,” Kuhn said.

In these next few weeks, they will be focused on winning conferences, so right it’s one of the biggest times of the season for Roney and her teammates.

“Our strive for that is what is fueling a lot of what is going on the field right now,” Roney said.

As Roney moves on in her future after this season she is excited to focus on her career ahead of her.

While she’s had a great four years here playing she will not be doing anything professionally with soccer when she graduates. She hopes to pursue a business and marketing career and let soccer become more of a recreational activity for her.

“I’m excited for it to become more of a casual thing in my life and just to do it for fun,” Roney said.