Cedar Creek girls soccer team thriving under leadership of senior star Alina Nelson

By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher After a 5-2 win over Vineland on Sept. 29, the Cedar Creek girls soccer team was 7-1 and had closed out one of its best months ever. Suddenly, the Pirates are a team to be reckoned with in the Cape-Atlantic League’s National Conference, and a big reason why is the play of senior captain Alina Nelson. Nelson has been a key player on the girls basketball team the past couple of years, but her soccer career has gone relatively unnoticed. She’s making sure that won’t last much longer, however. She’s become one of the leading scorers in the school’s brief history with more than 20 career goals, and her playmaking ability in the center of the field has made the Pirates a legitimate contender in both the CAL and South Jersey Group 2. A 7-0 win over ACIT on Oct. 7 had the Pirates at 9-1 overall and 3-0 in the CAL National Conference. The 18-year-old from Port Republic has six goals in 10 games, but, more importantly, has become the type of player who can get past defenders and set up her teammates with quality shots on goal. Nelson said she had a feeling this season might be a special one for Cedar Creek. “I was excited. I knew everyone on the team was really close. I know we lost some good players from last year, but I knew we were still going to have a good season. I knew with the people we had on the team we could have a good season,” Nelson said. First-year head coach Danielle Hagel said it was a no-brainer when it came to naming Nelson one of the team captains. She has earned the respect of her teammates, Hagel said, not only through her work ethic on the field but also through the example she sets off the field. Cedar Creek’s Alina Nelson, left, tries to get around St. Joseph’s Angela Frederick during the Pirates’ win over the Wildcats in September. Nelson has scored six goals in Cedar Creek’s first 10 games. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “She absolutely controls the entire tempo of the game. She’s a leader both on and off the field and one of the best kids I know, personally, and not just as a soccer player. The other girls really admire her and look up to her, and her work ethic kind of radiates to the rest of the team. The energy she brings, you can’t really ask anything more of her,” Hagel said. “She’s one of the most humble, down-to-earth kids that I know. I think she kind of just takes that role upon herself because she is a senior, but it’s always good to encourage her. She doesn’t really need the encouragement, but I want to make sure she knows she is a very pivotal player for us this year.” Nelson has a tendency to be a bit shy, and as a younger player wasn’t overly aggressive with the ball on her foot. But this season she has taken on the challenge of being the Pirates’ go-to player, Hagel said. “She has grown into a more mature person. She has a very laid-back personality, but she has grown and accepted that challenge of being a leader on the field,” Hagel said. “It’s been great to see her grow over the past few years. To be able to coach her, I’m lucky enough to be able to do that for a year. I wish I had a few more years with her, but if you give me a year with her, I’ll take it. She has made my job so easy, taking the role of getting things going in warm-ups and practice when I’m worried about a million other things. I don’t have to worry because I know she is going to take the lead and get things going.” Teammate Kelsey Kruger, one of just four seniors on the team along with Nelson, Emily Frazee and Michaela Mundy, said the Pirates look to Nelson on a daily basis to set the tone. “She’s obviously a great player, but she’s also really nice, funny and a great leader for our team. She works really hard and is a really good playmaker. She seems to always know where to play the ball and has great vision in seeing the whole field,” Kruger said. “Once she starts going and we start making plays, everyone becomes better. She places the ball where it should be and that allows other players to run onto it and make a play. That just makes everyone better.” With Nelson leading the way, Cedar Creek has been one of the top offensive teams in the CAL National. Through their first 10 games, the Pirates outscored their opponents 40-9, and their only loss came against Millville, one of the top teams in the CAL American Conference. They also have quality wins against teams such as Holy Spirit and Middle Township. Nelson said the key for her has simply been gaining confidence. Nelson has led Cedar Creek to a 9-1 record so far, including an undefeated mark in the Cape-Atlantic League’s National Conference. “I want to be a leader on and off the field. I want my teammates to be able to come to me with anything. I try to keep it encouraging on the field, and that’s important. You don’t want people getting down on each other,” Nelson said. “I feel like I have gotten a lot better, and a lot more confident than I was when I was younger. I used to be kind of scared to go up against the older girls, but now that I’m older I have a lot more confidence.” She also said she put in a lot more work this past summer, knowing she had just one season of high school soccer left. The Pirates earned a spot in the South Jersey Group 2 tournament last season but were eliminated in the first round. Nelson said she doesn’t want that to happen in her final season. “This summer I trained a lot harder. I focused more on conditioning because I wanted to be in better shape. And I feel like I am way more offensive-minded than I used to be. When we get the ball, my mind is on scoring,” Nelson said. “We go into every game expecting to play well every time and keep winning.” Nelson is quick to deflect praise, however, and give credit to her teammates. She feels like the group Cedar Creek has this year has developed a very tight bond. “Everyone on this team works so hard for each other, and that’s probably my favorite thing,” Nelson said. “It’s not just one person, we are all doing this together, which is pretty cool. I definitely think we are a team that can do well in the playoffs, but we’re not thinking that far ahead. We need to take it one game at a time.” Hagel said that Nelson is the complete package when it comes to a quality high school athlete. “She’s a very likeable person, so that makes it easier for her to be a leader on the field. Not only do the other girls like her, but they respect her in every aspect of who she is. That plays a huge role. She’s a great student, she’s a great friend, she comes from a great family, and all of that sort of comes together to make her someone who is extremely important, and the other girls feed off that,” Hagel said. “Alina is never someone I have to question her work ethic. I know as the season progresses, she is going to work on things she need to improve upon. She’ll never stop working, so I can foresee her doing even better as the season goes on.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]