Tommy Waller
Staff Writer
After four years playing for the Mustang’s girls soccer program, senior Vivana Villacorta plans to attend the University of California Los Angeles after committing for soccer at the collegiate level.
Villacorta has been on Mira Costa’s varsity program for all 4 years,and was able to beat out seniors for the starting central midfielder job as a freshman. According to Villacorta, she will always cherish the memories she made on the team.
“I will never forget all the good times I’ve had with teammates and I’m certainly going to miss all the laughs we’ve had,” Villacorta said. “I’ve really enjoyed bonding with the girls and spending so much time with them.”
Photos: Viviana Villacorta practices soccer.
Villacorta has helped the Girls soccer program place 2nd in Bay league twice, and has also guided the Mustangs to a CIF semi-final. According to fellow teammate Jamie Averch, Villacorta does a great job leading the team.
“She is a really amazing player and the whole team is really proud of her,” Averch said. “She is amazing at bringing energy to our games and she really sets a good example for the rest of the team.”
Link: Villacorta plays in 2016 Women’s International Cup
Villacorta was also able to partake in the 2016 Women’s International Cup for the United States. The team traveled to Belfast, Ireland where she took on countries ranging from France to England. According to Averch, Villacorta was able to make the whole program proud.
“It is cool knowing that I have played with someone who has represented the US in soccer,” Averch said. “It is a very good achievement and I hope that Viviana knows how proud we all are of her.”
Link: Villacorta’s player profile
Villacorta’s commitment to UCLA was not her first, as she had committed to the University of San Diego her sophomore year. She was able to decommit because the coach she had originally committed to was dismissed.
“After the coach who recruited me was dismissed I was uncertain on what to do,” Villacorta said. “I decided that I did not want to be part of an unstable program not knowing who the new coach was going to be so I ended up decommitting.”
Villacorta was interested in UCLA because of its great academic reputation. After she found out that UCLA had substantial interest in her as well, she went on a visit to the campus and was very impressed.
“I had a lot of fun on my tour and I realized that UCLA was a perfect fit for me,” Villacorta said. “I had contacted various coaches and I was ecstatic to find out the level of interest UCLA had in me.”
With the commitment, a reminder was sent to the team that it would be losing one of its key players after this season. According to Averch, the team will do their best to generate as much wins as they can in Villacorta’s last season.
“She has done so much for this team during her 4 years as starter and we all really want her to do well,” Averch said. “This is obviously her last year at Costa and so we as a team we have all decided that we want her to go out with a bang so we are going to have a lot more motivation.”
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