In her freshman year of college, a recent Albert Lea graduate is making her mark on and off the soccer field.

Kathryn Flaherty, a 2017 graduate of Albert Lea High School, recently completed her first semester at North Iowa Area Community College, where she is pursuing a degree in agriculture. Flaherty is also the starting goalie on the NIACC soccer team, the first women’s soccer team the school has fielded in over 10 years.

She has wasted no time in making a name for herself at the collegiate level as she was named to the ICCAC All-Conference first team.

“It was a huge honor for me,” she said. “There were a lot of great players on the team with me, so I was very privileged to be among them.”

Flaherty was the only NIACC player to be selected to the All-Conference first team.

Although she only has one semester under her belt, Flaherty said she has adjusted well to the college life. She said some of her favorite things about college were the flexibility in her daily schedule, taking classes that are really interesting and, of course, playing soccer.

Having wanted to play college soccer for a long time, Flaherty said it was during her senior year she fully realized it was something she could keep doing. She said there is a big difference between playing in high school and playing in college.

“The biggest difference between high school soccer and college soccer is the speed of play,” she said. “It’s much quicker than in high school; shots are harder, girls are faster and you need to be able to make quicker decisions. I have loved being able to challenge myself with the fast pace of the college level.”

Although the play is different, that doesn’t mean she didn’t bring with her any lessons that she learned throughout high school.

“The biggest lesson I took with me to college soccer is that you won’t achieve your goals without hard work,” Flaherty said. “This is especially true at the college level with there being multiple people working for the same starting spot. You must work hard every minute.”

Outside of playing soccer, Flaherty likes to work out, play indoor soccer with her teammates and fish. She also does some volunteer work at the Humane Society of North Iowa and the Mason City Animal Shelter a few times a week.

She even had a few opportunities to come back and see the high school team in action.

“I have loved watching my sister, Laura, and one of my best friends, Ella, continue playing out there,” she said. “It’s weird for me to be up in the stands watching those two instead of being behind them between the posts.”

After completing her degree at NIACC, Flaherty said she plans to transfer to a four-year school to pursue a bachelor’s degree in animal science while also continuing her soccer career.