Oyster, Neuqua fixed on a fine season ahead

By Gary Larsen

When you have a freshman goalkeeper and plan to play with three defenders, your central defender had better be one heck of a player.

Meet Neuqua Valley’s Megan Oyster.

“There’s nothing you can say about any good player that Megan doesn’t have,” Neuqua Valley teammate Morgan Mulcahy said. “She’s great. She’s an impact player on the field and she’s at that next level that everyone is trying to reach.”
 
The UCLA-bound Oyster is a national team player, a three-time all-stater, and she was a Parade All-American as a junior last season. If any high school player in Illinois has a right to be a bit full of herself, it’s Oyster, but don’t hold your breath.

“For some top players it can be all about them, but it’s not like that with Megan,” Mulcahy said. “She’s a team player and that’s really what we love about her.”

Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau has been sending Oyster our for varsity introductions for four years.
 
“She’s just a dominant player. She plays the game at such a high level and most importantly, she’s such a smart player,” Moreau said. “She controls the back line, goes forward when she needs to, and we’ve relied on her leadership ability since she was a freshman.”

Most freshmen playing varsity soccer tend to fade into the background and let the seniors do the talking. Not Oyster. “She was very vocal as a freshman and she would fire people up during pre-game,” Moreau said. “You just don’t see that very often from a freshman.”

Oyster’s early maturity on a soccer field can partly be traced to the time she spent playing for the Windy City Pride before high school – on the Pride’s boys’ team between U-10 and U-14 play. Oyster is still a proud member of the Pride, and has been since she was six years old.

Playing against boys at a young age taught the Wildcats’ senior a few things.

“I learned to play as fast as I can and they were much more physical, so I learned the ins and outs of getting in there and getting dirty,” Oyster said.

Her physical presence on a soccer field is undeniable, and that presence will serve the Wildcats well in back this season. Neuqua Valley went 19-3-2 last year and its annually high expectations may be even higher than usual this year.

Senior captains Oyster, Mulcahy, Alexa Wilde, and Lauren Noonan will be joined by fellow seniors Shannon Pimmel, Lisa Nuccio, Noelle Leary, and Allie McBride to lead a young and gifted stable of players on the south end of Naperville.

“It takes maturity and the biggest thing is getting people to want to follow you,” Mulcahy said of leadership. “And when they’re down, you have to be the one that helps them get back up.”

Oyster has tried to get the team’s first-year varsity players ready by pulling no punches.

“As a senior I kind of want to be tough on the freshmen because they don’t know what they’re in for yet,” Oyster said. “It’s a long, tough season and it can get brutal on the field. They don’t know that yet, so to give them a little of that in practice might get them ready for it.

“I like to motivate and I want to be there for my teammates. I want to lead them on the field and show them that you can do it by keeping your head in the game and not letting things affect you.”

Freshmen Madison Thielsen and Courtney Keefer will vie for time in net, and freshmen Katie Ciesiulka, Talise Romain, and Olivia Schmitt have all made the varsity roster. Neuqua has a solid core of sophomores in Zoey Goralski, Hope D’Addario, Brooke Ksiazek, Gianna Dal Pozzo, and Shannon Donlon, and juniors Hannah Nelmark, Sydney Tappin, Emily Bowie, and Meghan Kelley ready to contribute.

“I expect to see a very hard-working team,” Mulcahy said. “The new girls we’ve picked up and especially the veterans, we all work hard. And that’s what we’re looking for. If we’re not the best team, we want to be the hardest-working team out there. That’s always the first thing on our agenda.”

Oyster also likes what she has seen so far.

“We’re a deep team this year and every player has something to bring to the table,” Oyster said. “From the defensive players to the offensive players, we’re going to kill it. I really feel like we’ve got a lot of talent this year.”

Neuqua has a pair of veteran defenders in the fold in Noonan and Nuccio and in the middle of it all will by Oyster, doing whatever she can to give a promising attack time to score.

“When you’re playing with three in the back you have to be confident in all three, and especially confident with your center back,” Moreau said. “Megan has honed her skills and become more of a physical player. She can play physical or play finesse. She’s very calm and composed on the ball, and she carries it out of the back with confidence.”

Oyster is a natural defender but for her first few seasons at Neuqua, she played at midfield and up top. She’s grateful for the time she spent in the attack.

“Being versatile helps you a lot as a player and playing at midfield and up top also helped me as a defender,” Oyster said. “It’s been great that Moreau gave me a chance to play all three.”

The best defenders around always seem to play with an edge, and Oyster thrives on the challenge of keeping the slate clean and winning every ball she can get to.

“Getting a shutout is the biggest statement you can make as a defense. It shows that you played hard the whole game and gave your offense a chance,” Oyster said.

“I love winning balls in the air. And winning a ball in the back is a great feeling, when you’re one-on-one with a player and you come away with the ball. It’s so much fun to play back there.”