Vannette was larger than life on the pitch for the Cavaliers
Central Valley Christian's Lizzy Vannette broke onto the Tulare County high school soccer scene with 20 goals and eight assists her freshman season.
She followed that up with 21 goals and nine assists her sophomore season.
The all of a sudden, the goal-scoring dropped off.
But it wasn't because she forgot where the goal was.
She actually became a much better soccer player.
A soccer outsider might not appreciate what Vannette did. It was her unselfishness to drop back to the midfield and set up her teammates that lifted the Cavaliers to championship heights once again.
"The stats aren't overwhelming," CVC coach Jacob De Groot said. "But if you ask coaches that play against us, she's the one they congratulate after because she impresses them so much. The coaches agreed that she was the heart of our team."
As a junior, she scored 14 goals and dished out 12 assists, and as a senior she scored 11 goals and had a career-high 19 assists.
"She developed a ton over the years," De Groot said. "Her freshman year, she was there to clean everything up and it was her job to score goals.
With players graduating, Vannette's role changed from a goal-scorer to a distributor.
"If you stick her on the front line, she'll score a bunch of goals," De Groot said.
"But you have to set up a team. You can't just put the best player in a position to score. You have to put her where she helps the team the most because a lot of other things happen on the field."
And in De Groot's mind, she had her best season as a senior.
Vannette, who was also named the Central Sequoia League MVP, capped a memorable career by being named the 2009-10 Times-Delta/Advance-Register Tulare County girls soccer player of the year.
"We had several good and new players on the team," Vannette said. "Having them on the field and being surrounded by players I could trust, made my life a lot easier."
Standing at 5-foot-2, Vannette often caught her competitors off guard. She may have been small in stature, but she made up for it with her speed, quickness and precision passing.
"My size is always an issue," Vannette said. "I'm always going to be outsized, and because of that I have to be quick with my feet and stand my ground as much as I can. I have to play with what I got."
Vannette made the most of her career at CVC.
In her four years with the Cavaliers, the team went 99-18-2, including a perfect 44-0 in league play. She won four league titles and three Central Section championships.
Winning the 2010 Central Section championship was extra special for Vannette because of the heartbreak the team endured the year before when they lost in the Central Section championship game.
"We set a couple of goals this season and one was to win Valley," Vannette said. "We did not want to lose again, it was not a fun feeling. The team was determined to win and we did. We focused on doing that and we weren't going to lose."
WE'RE SO PROUD OF YOU LIZZY!!!!
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20100326/SPORTS/3260314/1006/Vannette-was-larger-than-life-on-the-pitch-for-the-Cavaliers
