One of the key players for Stanford women’s soccer this season is junior forward Allie Montoya. Montoya was kind enough to share her thoughts on the season with CardinalSportsReport.com and why she feels like this year’s team has a chance to be even better than last year.
After reaching the College Cup final against Florida State last year, Montoya feels like this year’s team is hungry to go the distance and take care of unfinished business. She loves how the season has started and feels like they just need to keep on building.
“We’re so excited for this season. It’s our revenge tour," Montoya said. "After losing the national championship, we’re so much stronger and we’re ready. Preseason has been great so far. We’re just like a really strong team this year and I can’t wait to see what’s next.”
What Montoya most likes about this year’s team is how everyone is capable of contributing and playing a role. She loves the combination of new players along with returning players, making for a very exciting nucleus of talent.
“I think every player adds something new to this team,” Montoya said. “Everyone is so special and it’s just going to be fun to see all the new connections between people and so many goal scores.”
With respect to her own game, Montoya’s main focus is staying aggressive and making the most of every opportunity she gets on the field. She loves the challenge of taking on the best players in the game and pushing herself to be the best she can be. She really enjoys playing under head coach Paul Ratcliffe because the style of play that he coaches suits her game really well.
“Personally, I want to score more goals this season and just work on my finishing and taking chances and taking shots and staying healthy,” Montoya said. “I like scoring and assisting and just going at players and taking people on. I think it’s so exciting and fun.
“I really like playing with Coach Ratcliffe because he plays a style of soccer that I enjoy and I feel like not a lot of college teams play and he really likes forwards to take on their defenders and just looks to keep the ball and so it’s really fun playing for him.”
Looking back on last season’s run to the College Cup final, Montoya feels like that experience will serve them well this season. She likes how it challenged them and made them grow as a team.
“Oh I think it’s going to help us so much,” Montoya said. “It challenged us, it pushed us, it taught us a lot and we’re just ready to come back stronger and we have more motivation and we know we have what it takes to make it there.”
With this being the first season for Stanford in the ACC, it’s a new era for the program. Montoya feels like the team is fired up for the opportunities that come with competing in the ACC and the chance to face some of the top teams in the country.
“I think the team is really excited,” Montoya said of the move to the ACC. “We get to play some top opponents and just go to new places and so I think it’s going to be really cool.”
On the academic front, Montoya has learned how to budget her time between school and soccer. She knows there are sacrifices that come with being an athlete at Stanford, but she feels like as long as you have your priorities in order you can manage things just fine.
“I think it’s just, you have to get your priorities straight first,” Montoya said. “You put school first and then soccer. So just planning around classes and stuff and then you have to make sacrifices. So it’s just knowing what you want in life.”
Montoya is currently majoring in design out of the engineering school. She has really enjoyed her studies and the opportunity it has given her to be really hands on.
“I’m studying design. So it’s like product design in the engineering school,” Montoya explained. “I picked that because I like hands on things and I think it’s super fun and interesting. Last quarter, I took Design 11 and we got to make a robot type thing and just do arts and crafts. It was really cool.”
For Montoya, adjusting to life at Stanford was made easier by the fact that she went to Mountain View High School, which is just down the road from Stanford. Mountain View takes academics really seriously and does a great job of preparing their students for university level coursework.
“I think it really helped me,” Montoya said of her time at Mountain View. “Especially with my time management. I feel like the classes at Mountain View were really challenging and so coming into Stanford it wasn’t that big of a jump.”
While she had a lot of amazing teachers at Mountain View, her soccer coach and chemistry teacher Jeff Panos stands out as one who was especially helpful. In addition to helping her love the game of soccer, he also got her to like chemistry, a subject that she didn’t naturally gravitate to.
“Mr. Panos,” Montoya said of a teacher that came to mind. “He was my chemistry teacher and my high school soccer coach and he really, he made me like chemistry which was hard to do. I really liked him.”
When she’s not playing soccer or studying, Montoya likes to keep things simple. Hang out with friends, watch a good show, or try a new kind of food that she hasn't had before.
“In my down time, I really like just spending time outdoors with friends,” Montoya said. “Like trying new foods. I’m a big foodie. So going to new restaurants and stuff and watching Netflix. I really like the show Narcos.”
Upon talking with her, it’s clear that Allie Montoya is excited for this season. She loves her teammates, coaches, and feels like this season has a chance to be really special. It’ll be fun to see how it all unfolds.
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