Bonnick scores fourth in victory
The forward helped Missouri earn its first win of the season against Arkansas on Saturday.
Published Sept. 14, 2010
Senior forward Alysha Bonnick scored her fourth goal of the season in a 4-0 victory over Arkansas on Friday night.
Bonnick scored unassisted four minutes into the second half against Arkansas to give Missouri a 2-0 lead. Bonnick also played a role in the Tigers’ early first half goal by playing the ball in and missing a shot before junior forward Kendra Collins scored.
Bonnick, one of four seniors on a young team, is the team’s leading scorer through the first six games of the season. She was the second leading scorer with eight goals on last season’s Big 12 championship team.
“It was a huge, huge change because there were six seniors last year, and most of them were captains,” Bonnick said. “I just kind of hid behind Michelle Collins and Kristen Andrighetto, so I really had to step up a lot this year.”
Andrighetto and Collins were key players in Missouri’s conference championship run last season. Andrighetto led the team with 11 goals and Collins notched seven goals and six assists.
The only other seniors on this year’s team are midfielder Krista Kruse, forward Kari Adam and goalkeeper Paula Pritzen. Pritzen, however, just transferred from Clemson before the start of this season.
Coach Brian Blitz, who has now won 200 career games, says Bonnick has stepped up as a leader this season.
“She leads by example,” Blitz said. “She’s been trying to verbally lead. We have such a young attack that if you look at her stats in the past six games, she’s certainly given us a great example against good teams. We’re going to need her all year long to continue that.”
Bonnick also feels part of her success can be owed to taking advantage of adjustments opponents are making.
“Teams have found out that we’re fast, so they clog the middle, so now I have to play wide and get the crosses off,” Bonnick said.
Bonnick has made headlines since her freshman year at Missouri, where she set freshman records in goals, assists and points and won the Big 12 Rookie of the Year award. She earned All-Big 12 first team honors in her sophomore year, and Academic All-Big 12 first team honors her junior year.
“Her freshman year she had pure talent and now she’s able to have some leadership qualities mixed with that talent and that’s how she’s continued to reach her potential that way,” Blitz said.
Bonnick’s leadership goes beyond the playing field, to the practice field as well.
“Alysha is a really good role model,” said freshman midfielder Danielle Nottingham, one of six freshmen on this year’s squad. “She’ll always be there telling you what to do. She’ll help me a lot with the technical stuff that I don’t know already. She’s a really good motivator and a really good positive leader.”
Bonnick will have to continue to play well as conference play approaches. Missouri will host Loyola (Md.) and Milwaukee next weekend starting conference play with a home game against Kansas the following weekend.