Women's Soccer Senior Spotlight; Karin Sendel

Senior midfielder Karin Sendel - Photo by Carlos Morales

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Senior midfielder Karin Sendel is one of four seniors on the UNCG women's soccer team. Leading up to Senior Day against Davidson (Oct. 12), UNCGSpartans.com will feature a new senior every home game until then.   

Growing up in Israel, what interested you about the game of Soccer? When did you realize you were good enough to play college soccer? Soccer is the most popular sport in Israel. It's considered a more male dominant sport but ever since I was a little kid I fell in love with the game and was running around with all the boys on the field. I never really had an idea of what college soccer was like so I had no way of knowing whether I was good enough or not until I actually got here and tried it. I have played on my national team since I was 16 so I was lucky enough to play against some of the best players in the world and hoped that this experience would help me in college. 

Being a Leader on this team, what advice have you given to your teammates about college soccer? When you're a freshman four years seems like a long time, but it's not until you are a senior that you realize how fast time goes by. There is no other experience that is anything like being a part of a soccer team in college, so the main advice is just to appreciate and enjoy every moment of it.

What has been your favorite college soccer memory since being a part of the team? The first thing I can think of is the first game at UNCG. I remember being super excited for a fresh start and being a part of this team. Another great one is from our game against Furman last year when we won the game in overtime. It was a great game and there was just such a burst of emotions and joy at the end of it.

You played two years at Ohio State, what interested you about UNCG women's soccer? Ohio State is a great school and I enjoyed my two years there. However I didn't feel like it was the right fit for me in terms of soccer. There were many things that interested me about UNCG. The type of soccer we play here which is possession oriented appealed to me and was a big factor in my decision. But ultimately when I came on my visit it was really the people I met here that made the decision very easy for me. There are not a lot of teams in the country that have the same sense of family as we do on our team.  

You are a very technical player, How did you develop this style of play? First of all I think that generally speaking other countries put a lot more emphasis on technique and ball control than the US. The players in the US are very athletic and fit but not as technical as the Europeans. For me, I grew up playing a lot of 5v5 games and just training in tight spaces really helped my technique. Also, watching high level soccer always helps to learn about the game and get examples for how things should be done from the very best.

What gives you a greater feeling, to score a game-winning goal or assist a game-winning goal?  I'm not much of a goal scorer :) so the chances of me assisting are higher. But to be honest as long as it is game winning I don't really care if it's an assist or a goal, what matters is that I helped my team win, so either one would make me happy.

If you could start your college career over again what would you change and why? Looking back on my college career I really don't think I would change anything. I've had some great moments and some not so great moment but even the hard times made me stronger and taught me a lot about myself and got me stronger mentally. I'll take experiences of a life time from my four years, so I'm grateful I was able to have them. 

What are your career aspirations after college? Great question! I am actually in the process of trying to figure it out myself and make a decision as for what's the next step for me. Eventually I want to become an industrial organizational psychologist. But at the moment I'm trying to decide whether I want to continue to play soccer in Europe after college or go to grad school right away.

  Senior Year

Junior Year

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