Rebecca Pihlgren wasn’t expecting to be named the Mountain East Conference Freshman of the Year for women’s soccer when she came to Point Park, but sure enough, her 11 goals and 27 points led to her getting the award.

“When I got the news that I got Freshman of the Year I was very shocked,” Pihlgren said. “I never thought I’d get it. And it was something I was not very familiar with, but then all my teammates explained for me what it was. It was very cool, but it’s something I never thought I’d get.”

Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, Pihlgren was introduced to the game of soccer by her brother and father as she was growing up.

“My dad and my brother would always go out and play soccer, and that’s when I found out that it was something I really enjoyed doing, so then I got signed up to do soccer and then I’ve just kept doing it.”

A number of factors led Pihlgren, a legal studies major, to choose Point Park as the school in which she wanted to further her academic and athletic careers. These factors included the coach, the city and the team itself.

“I got a really good impression of coach Colin [Baker], and I really enjoyed that it was in the city, and I also got to talk to a couple teammates,” Pihlgren said. “It just seemed like a really nice school, and that the team had a really good connection with each other and that everyone in the team really enjoyed playing, so I really liked that.”

Heading into her freshman season as a Pioneer, Pihlgren’s main mindset was to enjoy the experience of playing college soccer and have fun with it.

“I was not expecting anything major,” Pihlgren said. “I was just really here to enjoy the moment, and just doing soccer in school as well because that’s something you can’t do in Sweden. And I really liked all my teammates, so I was just here to have a good time just both on the field and off the field.”

When she’s not playing soccer, Pihlgren said that she enjoys spending time with her friends and exploring the city, naming Point State Park as one of her favorite spots.

The level of competition Pihlgren faced in North America, compared to what she faced in Sweden, was close to what she expected. However, she was still impressed with how good the other teams in the conference were and how good her own team was.

“When I got here I was very happy that our team was really good — and all the teams that we played against are really good — but I feel like our teams just played good with other good teams,” Pihlgren said.

There are many lessons that a freshman athlete can learn, and Pihlgren said the biggest one she lived by was not getting too caught up in certain details.

“It was to just forget about the small things that you don’t feel like you did great,” Pihlgren said, “And just let that go and just keep going.”

Pihlgren played 39 minutes in Point Park’s 3-0 loss to Concord in the MEC Soccer Championship Quarterfinals, but she still had something to take away from that experience.

“You have to enjoy playing soccer to have a good time, like the result doesn’t matter as long as you have a great time playing.”

The Pioneers will certainly rely on Pihlgren as a top offensive producer for next season. But this offseason, she is looking to better the defensive side of her game.

“Just working more defensively with the team and like working better with the people behind me and not going out by myself,” Pilgren said.