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Sticking with soccer paid off for Streamwood's Carroll

If you dig deep enough through Streamwood's 8to18 athletic website, you can find a 2011-2012 JV volleyball roster with Tawny Carroll's name on it.

The roster from her freshman season reads: position - OH (outside hitter); height - 5-3; year - 2015.

But to find another volleyball roster any year after that with Carroll's name on it would be like trying to walk on Mars.

"I told her, 'By the time you're a senior, I will do whatever it takes to make sure you get a scholarship to play soccer. I know you can do it, but you have to dedicate yourself. Volleyball isn't going to get you a scholarship. Soccer's going to be that sport,' " Sabres' soccer coach Matt Polovin said. "I'm sure it was tough at the time for a freshman to think about college but once she did it, she never looked back. I think she will probably tell you that was the best thing that ever happened to her."

It sure was. Take a look this fall at Drake University's athletic website and you won't have to look past the women's soccer roster to find Carroll's name.

Carroll's decision to drop volleyball in 2011 paid huge dividends. Instead of playing the game she, her parents Bob and Laura Carroll and sister Lindsey loved, the speedy soccer star fully dedicated herself to the pitch. From her sophomore campaign on, Carroll continued her starting role on the Sabres' soccer team, but she also joined the Fox Valley Strikers club team, coached by Polovin and run by the one-time St. Charles East, Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley soccer coach Pat Feulner, who pledged to help her improve skills.

After banner junior and senior seasons scoring 59 of her 85 career goals to go with a career 54 assists - that leads Streamwood's boys and girls programs all-time - Carroll bypassed a spot at Lewis University and earned a full ride to Division I Drake in Des Moines, Iowa.

And for those efforts, which also include an area-leading 31 goals and 19 assists this season, Carroll has been selected the honorary captain of the Daily Herald's Fox Valley All-Area team for girls soccer. She becomes the first Streamwood girl to earn the award, and second-straight soccer athlete from the school to gain the honors. Alan Camarena took home the boys award last fall.

But would Carroll have earned a captain's award in volleyball if she hadn't settled on soccer? She chuckled at the idea but she's just extremely fortunate of where her choice led to.

"I wish I could have continued to played volleyball a little bit because it was fun," Carroll said. "But looking back from where I am now, I'm very grateful for all the help I received. Being able to move to such a great club and have such good coaches, I'm very grateful. I'm happy I made this decision. (But) it was definitely tough, because it was the sport my parents played. My sister also played it. It was a family thing. But I really love soccer and I knew I would probably have a better future in soccer."

It only helped that Carroll's passion of soccer went back 13 years. She began at age 5 and participated for the first time in organized soccer at 7 with the Bartlett Hawks club team.

She still continued to play club volleyball until high school but work to mold her soccer craft until Feulner and Polovin directed her away from the volleyball court.

"I told her, 'You need to really develop your game in the offseason,' " said Polovin, who suggested the Strikers. " 'I'm taking you to a high level right now but I only get you for two months. I want to see you develop to the well-rounded, absolute best soccer player you can be.'And she listened."

"Matt obviously told me about her speed and athleticism and thought that if she got into a good program, and got trained properly, she could be something special," said Feulner, a 25-year veteran of the Strikers, including 6 as a director and 15 as president. "She had God's gifts: she was fast, athletic, she just needed to learn how to play, really. Our main focus with her has been more the tactical side of the game and trying to give her some tools that we knew in college and high schools levels she would need to attain in order to be successful."

Carroll used that seasoning and developed into one of the state's biggest threats. She garnered her first all-state selection this year in addition to being a 3-time all-sectional, all-UEC and Daily Herald All-Area selection. Her speed, power and precision commanded double and triple teams, in which Carroll had to rely on her teammates, something she improved on over time.

"A lot of people think that playing soccer is just about 'oh, let's do some tricks, let's pass to each other, let's all do this stuff,' " Carroll said. "Communication is definitely key to playing soccer. It makes it so much easier. You don't have to have all those tricks to be a good soccer player. And also speed, it's kind of hard to find girls that are fast and will keep going at you and going at you. And that's something over the years coaches told me I was good at."

Streamwood sophomore midfielder Alondra Blanco, whose brother Sergio was Streamwood's boys keeper during the Sabres' state run last fall, can attest to Carroll's ability over the years.

"She was my best friend on the field and I couldn't have been happier to be a team captain with her," Blanco said. "She wowed me every game when she would go on a breakaway. It could be this big breakaway of the game but she would not get tired because she wanted a goal. Her drive is something I really admire in her because she never gave up."

One of Carroll's defining moments occurred in a 2-1 win against Elgin this season when the Maroons took a 1-0 lead midway through the first half. Not more than 28 seconds later, Carroll raced down the right sideline all by herself to tie the game, displaying the will to win and all the attributes she had in her arsenal.

"She made the other defenders' lives not exciting, that's for sure," Polovin said. "She wanted to play at her best or even better every single game. So when she scores goals like that 28 seconds after the Elgin girl did, it just shows you that yeah, I want it more than them and I'm going to show you how good I am and let's see you stop me."

As for the collegiate level, Carroll's wish is continued success and possibly a captain's role at Drake, where she will study biology and hopes to go onto dental school. But to team up with Camarena to be the first tandem from the same school to win captain honors since Matt Grimmer and Jessica Madary did for Bartlett in the 2001-2002 school year, Carroll couldn't say enough.

"I never thought all these awards would be possible," Carroll said. "Am I really that good? This is crazy to think someone like me from Streamwood would. This is crazy, but an honor."

And when she becomes a dentist, Carroll shouldn't be surprised to see some of those defenders in the chair. After all those times they cringed their teeth defending her attack, their smiles will need her drilling one more time.

Images: Daily Herald All-Area Spring 2015 Honorary Team Captains

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