Journal & Courier girls soccer player of the year: West Lafayette's Anna Lasater

WEST LAFAYETTE - Anna Lasater was a bit surprised.

Defensive players don't often win the big awards.

But the West Lafayette junior isn't just any defensive player.

She was the center back for a tremendous defense that led the way for Hoosier Conference and sectional championships, earning Lasater Journal & Courier girls soccer Player of the Year.

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"Defense is not really a glamorous position," Lasater said. "Obviously you don't get a lot of the stats and with stats comes recognition."

Here's the stats that don't solely get attributed to Lasater, but are very much a byproduct of putting her into the center of a back line that carried West Lafayette until the offense found its way this season.

The Red Devils began the season 0-4, scoring just two goals total in those four matches, but the defense did its part to keep West Side in games against some of the best competition on its schedule, including the best team in the state in Noblesville.

After that, West Lafayette went 16 straight matches without a loss, compiling 10 shutouts during that span. The other six opponents in that stretch scored one goal each. So did the 17th, Mishawaka Marian, in a 1-0 regional championship victory that ended West Side's season.

"We don’t oftentimes get kids that come in knowing that is their role and yes, I want to play defense," West Lafayette coach Jocelyn Cavalier said. "That is very selfless. She recognized where her strengths were. Growing up, the ranks before high school, she has done an amazing job of figuring out how to play that position before she even came to us.

"We’ve had a pretty strong tradition of center backs the last few years at West Side. Anna played on the outside her freshman year because we had two strong center backs. She learned a lot playing with them as a freshman and getting her into the pace of varsity was super helpful for her. The next year, she had a big time role for us in the middle of the field."

This season, though, Cavalier and her staff knew they needed to find a way to generate more offense.