Katie Stengel’s coach calls her a late bloomer. Late to flourish, perhaps, but also quick.
The Wake Forest forward didn’t attract the attention of college soccer’s highest echelon as a high school prospect, but she has it now. A sophomore, Stengel might be the top player in the country and may hold a future with the U.S. national team.
“Katie’s a complete overachiever,” Wake Forest coach Tony da Luz said. “She wants to be the best at whatever she does.”
Wake Forest will play Duke on Friday evening in the second College Cup semifinal at Kennesaw State. Those who attend will see an efficient scorer who can finish with either foot, play in the air, is technically strong and employs strength and speed.
“I look at her, and she’s just a complete player,” North Carolina coach Anson Dorrance said. “She’s a striker without a weakness.”
Stengel has scored 19 goals and 46 points this season, both breaking school records she set last year as a freshman. She also leads the ACC in goals and points and is trying to become the third player to lead the conference in scoring in consecutive years. The first two were North Carolina’s Mia Hamm, arguably the greatest women’s player ever, and N.C. State’s Charmaine Hooper, perhaps the greatest Canadian player ever and also a member of the first incarnation of the Atlanta Beat.
Duke coach Robbie Church, whose team will face the Demon Deacons for the third time this season Friday, described her as a sniper who needs only one or two opportunities to get a ball into the net. Her past 10 shots on goal in the past five games have produced six goals, including three game-winners.
“She’s quicker and faster than you think out there, and she just has a sense to score goals,” Church said. “She’s a special, special player.”
As a high schooler in Melbourne, Fla., Stengel was recruited by College Cup-participant Florida State and other ACC schools, including Wake Forest. The game’s elite of the elite, such as Notre Dame and Stanford, did not recruit her. Stengel figured it was because she didn’t possess the U.S. youth national-team experience that those schools’ recruits often have.
“They were busy and had other players to look for, I guess,” said Stengel, with no trace of bitterness.
Da Luz saw it a little differently.
“We had to compete for her, but for some reason she wasn’t on the radar of everybody,” he said. “We felt like, ‘this kid’s going to be really good.’”
As a freshman, she was a second-team All-American, All-ACC first team and a semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy, soccer’s Heisman. After playing for the under-18 national team late in her senior year, Stengel has since played with the under-20 national team. She said playing for the full national team has been her goal since she was a 3-year-old.
“I’ve been trying every day to get there,” said Stengel, the valedictorian of her high school and a pre-med student at Wake Forest. “If it happens, it happens. If not, at least I can say I worked hard and tried.”
It doesn’t seem beyond the grasp of a player who is borderline obsessive on competition and improvement.
“Nobody puts in more extra time before practice, after practice or on off days than Katie does to improve and keep sharp,” da Luz said.
Said Dorrance, who led the U.S. to the first women’s World Cup championship in 1991, “Between [her work ethic] and her natural gifts, I think she could certainly make the full [national] team eventually.”
Better late than never.
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