Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect UNE’s 4-1 win over Eastern Nazarene on Tuesday.
If it weren’t for the brace Katie Caron wore, new University of New England women’s soccer coach Heather Davis never would have known the forward was coming off a torn ACL last year.
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“A brace is a dead giveaway, but she wasn’t tentative at all,” Davis, now in her second year as Nor’easters coach, said.
Caron, now a senior captain, has shed the brace and still plays with the same intensity.
“I only have one speed,” Caron, a Winslow native, said. “All out.”
Caron leads UNE with eight goals and eight assists. After defeating Eastern Nazarene in Tuesday afternoon’s regular-season finale, the Nor’easters were 12-2-2 and in first place in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. If the Nor’easters, 8-0-1 in conference play, win the conference tournament, they will earn their first trip to the NCAA Division III tourney since 2000.
“This year, we have all the potential,” Caron said. “We just have to do it.”
Caron tore her ACL in the middle of her sophomore season and returned last season to score nine goals and five assists. She was named all-conference first team.
“Katie is a really special player. I can’t say I’ve coached a player with her internal drive in recent years,” Davis said. “Her competitiveness and drive is amazing. It’s at practice; it’s at games.”
Caron is sixth in the league in scoring. She is tied for sixth on the all-time goals list at UNE with 27 and third in assists with 19.
All of that doesn’t concern Caron. She said until presented with those statistics, she never would have known her place in UNE women’s soccer history.
“I didn’t even know that,” Caron said.
Not wearing the knee brace frees her up, Caron said.
The biggest improvement she’s seen in her game over her college career is in adjusting to the more physical style of play.
“It’s much rougher. You have to hold your own out there,” Caron said.
An Environmental Sciences major, Caron spent part of the summer of 2010 on a volunteer research trip to Kenya. She spent time at Lake Victoria and the Serengeti, as well as Nairobi, the nation’s capital.
“It was a great trip,” Caron said. “I played a lot of soccer.”
With the conference tournament coming up, and a bid to the NCAAs at stake, Caron hopes she’s saying the same thing about November.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com
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