The Long Beach State women’s soccer match Thursday against No. 15 UC Irvine, which kicks off at George Allen Field at 3 p.m., might mean a little more to sophomore Nadia Link.
Whether anyone knows it or not, Link is no ordinary student-athlete.
Aside from waking up every morning at 6 a.m. to make the 90-minute commute to Long Beach from her hometown of Walnut, she attends soccer practices daily while carrying 16 units.
But those are not the only elements that make the elusive striker so special.
It all began in the summer of 2008 when her life took an unexpected turn. Link discovered that she was pregnant with her 21-month-old daughter, Adrianna.
The news sent shockwaves through her family and infuriated her parents to the extent that she was eventually kicked out of her home.
“When I had initially told my mom I was pregnant, it was heartbreaking,” Link said. “My mom [said], ‘I can’t do this right now’ … it was tough.”
With no place to stay, Link and her then-boyfriend, Agustine Lopez, fled to several venues before living in her car for three weeks while she was 7 months pregnant.
But then one evening, Link tearfully pleaded with her mother and asked if she could return home. Fortunately, her mother consented, but Link knew that it would be awhile before she would again play the sport that garnered her so much attention throughout high school.
In addition to LBSU, head coaches from Stanford, California, USC and UCI were lined up to recruit her with scholarship incentives. It was no secret that the 5-foot-6 forward had led her alma mater to three consecutive conference titles and tallied 26 goals and 19 assists in her senior year.
But by spring 2008, Link decided to send her letter of intent to UCI, which currently sits atop the Big West Conference standings with a 13-game unbeaten streak.
Nonetheless, Link’s tenure with the Anteaters was short-lived after she revealed the news of her pregnancy to a displeased UCI head coach, Scott Juniper, who coached her at the youth club soccer level.
“[Scholarship] money had been promised,” Link said. “But once [Juniper] found out the news, he backed out on a verbal agreement … but I can understand where he was coming from.”
Nobody, including Link, knew if she’d ever play soccer again, until about eight months into her pregnancy when her phone started ringing.
On the other end of the line was the only recruiter who refused to give up on her — LBSU head coach Mauricio Ingrassia, who offered her a scholarship to play soccer.
“I had belief that she could do it,” Ingrassia said. “She is such a dynamic player that if it did work out in the end, it was going to pay off big for us and it certainly has.”
Although Ingrassia was thrilled to have Link accept his offer, he knew it would take some time before she returned to playing shape and adjusted to her new role as a mom. After all, it had been a year since she last stepped onto a soccer field.
“She’s a student, she’s a soccer player and she’s a mom,” Ingrassia said. “It takes a special type of person to cope with all of that. And Nadia is that special person.”
New responsibilities and fitness woes contributed to Link’s inability to score in her first year with the 49ers last season, as they finished with a 5-11-3 record and missed the postseason.
But that didn’t discourage Link. In fact, it motivated her to work even harder in the offseason as she dropped 10 pounds in addition to the 25 pounds she lost after giving birth.
“I knew where I could be compared to where I was at before,” Link said. “So me, my mom, dad and daughter would come to the [LBSU] track at 7 every morning and I’d run.”
Her dedication would pay dividends as her team-leading seven goals and 15 points this season have powered The Beach to 10 victories in 15 games, three of which have come against ranked opponents.
She also earned CollegeSoccer360.com’s Primetime Player of the Week after netting four goals in three wins in the week of Aug. 23-29 and was among TopDrawerSoccer.com’s top 100 players to watch.
Ingrassia said that it’s no coincidence LBSU’s success this year — 10-3-2 overall and 3-0-1 in conference play — has been largely due to Link’s emergence.
“Last year we didn’t have a threat up front and now, this year, we have a threat,” Ingrassia said. “She really opens up [opportunities] for other people, especially early on [in the season] when we were trying to learn how to be successful again.
“She really put us on her back.”
Now majoring in health science while maintaining a 3.4 GPA, Link hopes to become a nurse one day, crediting her daughter as the inspiration behind her success and resiliency both on and off the field.
“When I look at my daughter every morning before I leave, that’s how I get motivated,” Link said. “I’m so grateful for everything I have and it’s made me a lot more appreciative to everything that goes on around me.”
Though she feels privileged to be playing for LBSU, Link said that she will never forget being passed up by conference-leading UCI (13-1-2, 5-0 Big West).
“When we played [UCI] last year, I was struggling with my fitness,” Link said. “I really wish I could’ve just dug it into them, but now I really can’t wait to play them.”
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