By David Boyce  |  Northwest vs. College of St. Mary  |  Thursday, Sept. 11  |  7 p.m.  |  Bearcat Stadium
Live Statistics  |  This Week in Bearcat Athletics
 
MARYVILLE, Mo. - As Northwest Missouri State junior Anna Holden delves deeper into her major in psychology, she could see those insights in the classroom translate to the soccer field.
 
In fact, it might have already happened. Holden has scored a goal in each of the Bearcats' first two games, both victories. A year ago, she scored three goals for the entire season.
 
Her early-season goals are the perfect tonic for a player who has had one knee surgery and two shoulder surgeries in her first two seasons at Northwest.
 
Holden, a forward from Harrisonville, Mo., enters Northwest home opener against College of St. Mary (Neb.) at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Bearcat Pitch, brimming with confidence.
 
"We know Anna can score a lot of goals," Northwest coach Tracy Hoza said. "The last couple of years with injuries and not being able to play to her full potential have been a struggle for her both on and off the field.
 
"This year she is healthy. She has been on fire all preseason and that is translating from the practice field to the game field. It is a confidence builder for her and a confidence builder for the team."
 
Returning from an injury with a healthy mental state intrigues Holden to the point that she wants to pursue the field once she graduates.
 
"I want to do sports psychology or neuropsychology," Holden said. "I hope it will help my own game. I have had my fair share of injuries. I think the part I look forward to the most is helping athletes who have injuries to get back in the right mindset to get back playing again. Injuries can have such a mental affect on you. After the physical part is healed, sometimes it takes awhile for your mind to heal also."
 
After listening to her story about how she ended up at Northwest, it is clear that Holden is an enterprising person. The summer before her senior year at Harrisonville, Holden started to look at schools she was interested in.
 
At first, Holden put Northwest on the backburner because the school did not have the major she was interested in. At the time, Holden wanted to go into athletic training.
 
"A week before my senior year, I got something in the mail from Northwest almost every day so that felt like God telling me where I should go," Holden said. "I emailed coach and asked to come up for a visit and see how I liked it here. I came up for a tryout. I liked her. I liked the team. I came up for my official visit a couple of days later and loved it. I had two visits scheduled after that and canceled them because I loved it here."
 
Despite the injuries and some tough losses on the field in her first two seasons at Northwest, it is obvious Holden is where she wants to be.
 
Her hard work to get back on the field is noticed by her coaches and teammates.
 
"Anna is very friendly, great personable skills, easy to talk to," Hoza said. "She has a great sense of humor. She is very humble. She is hard working and people have seen how hard she has worked. She is passionate about soccer. Players can see that. She is passionate about her team."
 
Holden likes the potential of this year's team.  The Bearcats were picked to finish 11^th in the preseason coaches poll. They plan to finish higher than that.
 
"We saw that coming just because of how we finished last year, but it definitely motivates us this year to prove them wrong and that we are a new team," Holden said. "Coming into preseason, nobody knew what to expect. Losing five seniors who were a pretty big part of our team last year had us pretty nervous. We all worked hard over the summer. We all had high hopes, but we weren't sure what to expect.
 
"After our first week and seeing how well we were practicing together and after our first preseason game, beating Truman for the first time built our confidence."
 
Holden said the Bearcats want to build on what they started in the first week of the season. After facing College of St. Mary (Neb.) on Thursday, they return to action noon Sunday at home against Bemidji State.
 
"We have to keep our confidence up but not be over confident," Holden said. "We have to come in working hard like the last two games and stay strong on defense and really push on offense."