by Rusty Ellis
One look at the Livingston Academy Lady Wildcats’ schedule will tell you that LA has had a pretty outstanding year, featuring an offense that’s loaded with a bevy of talent.
What goes unnoticed however, in today’s day and age of high octane offenses across all sports, is just how sold the LA defense and keeper Emma Dulworth has been.
“I think her game has always been top-notch,” said coach Heather Marshall. “She’s standing out to fans now, even though the team and coaches knew her ability all season. I’m just glad that people are starting to see that.”
This came to a head last week, when in consecutive games against Kingston and Anderson County, Dulworth stopped two penalty kicks in moments that proved to be integral to the game.
When asked about her success and what she attributes it to, Dulworth says it’s all about having an attacking mindset when the time is right.
“Just being alert the whole time and being ready when the ball comes my way,” Dulworth said. “(I’ve been) attacking the ball more instead of just letting it roll to me…that’s important, especially in one-on-ones.”
Penalty kicks are an interesting part of the game of soccer, because while you can practice it every day of the week, there’s only so much an athlete like Dulworth can do in the moment to stop any player’s shot one-on-one.
When asked about what goes through her head during a PK, Dulworth says she’s worked more and more on reacting and being attentive, rather than attempting to predict what the offensive player is going to do.
“It’s very stressful because they’re made for the offensive player to score,” Dulworth said. “I just tell myself to breath and wait, because the biggest thing is to wait for them to kick and then react…you don’t want to react the wrong way first, and that’s very hard to do.”
Dulworth’s taken big steps this season in net, and much of it is contributed to assistant coach Michael Sells and the work he’s put in to helping her.
It also doesn’t hurt that she sat behind an all-time great Livingston Academy keeper and current Lincoln Memorial keeper Tori Hinds.
“The last three or four games, you’ve just seen her confidence level sky-rocket,” said head coach David Sadler. “I credit a lot of that to Michael, who’s really spent a lot of time with her and gotten her to this point…she also learned from Tori and Tori was excellent, and she also has a really good defense in front of her. She does an excellent job of taking care of business back there.”
Now on the eve of the Class AA State Tournament, Dulworth says it’s finally set in that they’re competing in the elite eight, so-to-speak. That doesn’t mean she’s any more nervous than normal, as she says she trusts the players in front of her.
“All of the people are getting their trip tickets to come see us and that’s overwhelming,” Dulworth said. “Page is a good team, and they try to cross it a lot to get shots in front of the net and their punts are far, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen. We feel like we’re prepared for this.”
Livingston Academy kicks off the Class AA State Tournament against Page on Wednesday at 11 a.m. Est. Full coverage can be found at uppercumberlandreporter.com following the game.