Career goals: 100
October 31, 2009
Jodi Fralick, senior and striker on the Lesley University Lynx soccer team, scored her 100th career goal today, ensuring herself and the university a spot in the record books.
Jodi Fralick kicks her 100th goal
Fralick, a Woburn, Mass. native, scored in the 29th minute of Lesley’s game against Bay Path College. Lelsey won 3-0 to finish 8-0 in the New England Collegiate Conference and head on to the conference semifinals on Nov. 5. It was both Senior Night and Fralick’s last regular season home game.
The goal makes Fralick the 15th NCAA Division III women’s soccer player to reach 100 goals and the 26th women’s soccer player in the NCAA ever to hit the milestone.
“I think it meant more to me that my teammates made it such a big deal,” Fralick said. “It hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m excited that it happened and it takes some pressure off.”
Since hitting 99 career goals on Wednesday, Fralick experience a feeling she does not usually associate with taking the field: anxiety.
Lesley Lynx soccer team
“I know that last year against Bay Path, we had a hard time scoring against them as well,” Fralick said. “Thinking about it before the whole time…I made myself nervous.”
Fralick’s teammates rushed her immediately after the goal. The team then ran down the sidelines and returned to the field sporting T-shirts with “100” written across the front. Fralick was presented a ceremonial 100th ball.
“It’s a great sense of relief for her and the team,” said Head Coach Paul Vasconcelos. “It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for the kid. Now we have one of ours in the record books.”
For Fralick, reaching 100 goals was hard-earned. Her freshman year at Lesley the Lynx were 2-15-2 without a single conference victory. Vasconcelos joined the following year and the team pulled a stunning 180, finishing 14-4-1 in 2007 and 16-3-2 in 2008. The team this year is 13-4-1.
Jenna and Jodi Fralick and family
Fralick also plays basketball and softball at Lesley.
“She works hard and she deserves it,” said her mother, Mary-Jo Fralick.
“It’s wonderful. It’s a culmination of 13 years of hard work,” her father, Jack Fralick, said. “I’ve been counting it down for a year.”
Working and playing with Fralick all those years was her younger sister, Jenna Fralick, a Lesley sophomore who plays midfield for the Lynx. Jenna said her older sister is not one to bask too long in a single victory or to place a personal achievement above a team achievement.
“She worked so hard and came so far from a program that was kind of struggling,” Jenna Fralick said. “As of right now, I know that what she really wants is for this team to win a championship and take that home with her as well.”
For more on Fralick and today’s game, visit the Lesley University Athletics website.