Senior forward Paige Gloster has helped UR Women’s soccer to a strong 4–1–1 start. She played all 96 minutes in the team’s season opener against New Paltz, scoring the game-winning goal in a 2–1 overtime victory. She also scored in a 3–0 victory versus Keuka College, and played 100 minutes in a 1–1 with Union College. Gloster also received the Garnish-Scholar Athlete Award for both her athletic skill and academic achievement and was honored at halftime of this weekend’s football home opener against Alfred State College.
What are your earliest memories of playing soccer?
I first started playing soccer when I was five in a recreational league. I’ve been playing consistently ever since, but I didn’t start playing really competitively until high school
How have you grown as a player during your college career?
I’d like to think that I have! Playing as often as we do here with practice everyday gives you more opportunities to get touches on the ball while also exposing the areas you can improve on, so development can occur quickly at the collegiate level as well!
How do members of the team motivate each other?
We motivate each other everyday, whether it is cheering on the field, praising each other off the field, or even just seeing how hard everyone works motivates us all to work harder. We really feed off of each other when it comes to motivation.
What’s the best advice a coach has given to you?
I would say that the best advice a coach has given me was to keep pushing past mistakes. Mistakes happen all the time in practice and games and can bring you down if you let them, but pushing through allows you to learn and reflect on the mistakes to make yourself better.
Who has been a key role model for you?
I would say USWNT player Christen Press. I think she’s a fantastic finisher and goal scorer and she’s a great player to watch because she reads the game so well.
What has been the most pivotal moment in your soccer career?
Definitely getting injured freshman year, I had to work back from the bottom up after my ACL injury and nothing was harder than that. So when I have a hard fitness test or anything of that nature, I just think about how if I could get through that injury, I could do whatever I put my mind to.
What has spurred the team’s strong start?
I think a lot of it has come from momentum that we picked up at the end of last season while also proving that we are capable of having a really strong start. You can see us fighting harder than ever to get a favorable result for us and it has really shown in how we’ve started this season.
What movie have you seen the most times?
I’ve seen all of the Terminator movies a ton of times!
