The top defender
For Arizona State to have postseason soccer once again, the veteran backline will need to be stout again. Leading the way will be Lieske Carleer, who played the most minutes for the Sun Devils this past spring.
Carleer’s impact can’t always be found on the box score. However, the conference’s coaches obviously saw her talent as she was voted to the Pac-12’s All-Conference Second Team as a defender this past spring. Carleer will most likely be joined by a youthful, but experienced group that includes Callie Darst, Jessica Hale and Lucy Johnson.
The Dutch defender will have a lot on her shoulders heading into her junior season, but all she’s done since coming to Tempe is start games and play solid defense. Parts of last season she appeared to be more involved in set pieces on the attack. Maybe there will be more of that moving forward?
It’ll also be interesting with the added depth to the roster and having played a full season in the spring, how many minutes Carleer will play after taking in 1613 already this calendar year. Nevertheless, she should see plenty and once again have a major impact for Sun Devil soccer.