With goals in each of her past six games, redshirt freshman Kristin Kowalik has played a major part in the woman’s soccer team’s six-game winning streak and has been named The Northeastern News Player of the Week.
Kowalik, one of the team’s two strikers, leads the team in scoring with nine goals. She had a pair of goals in the opening two games of the win streak, against St. Bonaventure and Holy Cross, which was just what the scoring-deprived Husky’s needed.
“Her speed is tremendous,” said coach Ed Matz. “She has good skills and a knack for scoring goals. Those three things combined make her one of the best strikers in the conference.”
NU captain Jen North agreed with Matz’s assessment of her fellow striker.
“She’s a workhorse, constantly pressuring people and making runs,” North said. “She creates things, when she makes runs it sets up holes in the [opposition’s] defense.”
A native of Katedralskolan, Sweden, Kowalik played on her country’s national team, which competed for the Adidas Cup in 1999, as well as the Swedish 16-and-under squad.
In 1998, Kowalik held the striker position for the BK Kenty squad that won Sweden’s Division 1 league title and thus earned a spot in the nation’s premier league for the 1999 season. In many European countries, professional teams will bounce between the nation’s number one and number two leagues, as the top team in the second division will replace the bottom team in the first division to ensure a constant flow of new players and teams.
Kowalik got her first taste of the States in 2000 after deciding that she needed a change of pace after high school and took a job as an au pair in the suburb of Medfield.
During her stay, she would often take the 45-minute trip into Boston to take in all the “touristy things.” The city began to grow on her and she made the decision to apply to colleges, eventually choosing to attend Northeastern because of the location in Boston and the co-op experience.
While she was regulated to the sidelines during her redshirt season, Kowalik impressed her coach by pouring her effort into the practice field.
“She was frustrated she couldn’t play, but she never missed a practice,” Matz said. “And there was never a time that she was not giving 120 percent. Her speed, the fact that she pressures everything, she has become as complete a package as you can get.”
With the adjustment from the Swedish style of soccer complete, and a slate full of America East games ahead of them, Kowalik said she likes her team’s chances.
“We are gelling as a team both on and off the field,” she said, adding that the team needs to continue playing their style of soccer in order to be successful.
– Peter Conroy
