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Kaufman finishes up season with hustle

Throughout this long and sometimes difficult season, the UA women's soccer team has always been able to count on the constant hustle and energy from sophomore midfielder Twila Kaufman.

No matter what the score, Kaufman can be seen running down opponents all over the field and playing with intelligence and precision.

UA head coach Lisa Fraser praises Kaufman as a "blue-collar player" who is not afraid to mix it up.

"I'm proud that she would call me that because I think we have a good core group of girls," Kaufman said. "I tend to think of myself as a technical player. I was brought up in a soccer environment where we worked on our skills constantly."

Kaufman's skills show on the field, as she has been a mainstay in the midfield this year, using her superb technical skills to distribute the ball to her teammates.

"She is one of our more skilled distributors," Assistant Coach Bruce Caris said. "Twila will look up and see a player between here and there, and she'll bend a ball around someone. That's a skill you work on, and she worked a lot on that."

Besides her natural soccer abilities, Kaufman also relies on sheer hustle to outwork her opponents.

"She definitely has a great work rate, there is no doubt about it, I think that is one of her real strengths," Fraser said. "She is definitely a blue-collar player, she is going to work hard."

All her hard work and hustle has made Kaufman one of the more respected players on the team.

"I think she is very intelligent and she has a lot to offer, and I think she does that in a real, kind of subtle way with her leadership," Fraser said.

Kaufman's leadership is exemplified in constant willingness to try and improve the team and herself.

She is confident that the Wildcats can work out their communication and game-time problems before their final weekend series against Oregon State and Oregon.

"There is always room for improvement, and we are definitely going to have to improve more," Kaufman said. "We work 100 percent and trust each other and our coaches, there is no reason why we can't go out there and give them a good game."

Fraser is also looking for Kaufman to get more involved offensively and to start looking for her own shot more.

Kaufman seemed to have taken this advice to heart, scoring her first goal of the season against Washington State last weekend.

"I have been getting into that position (to score) more and more, and that's why I was working out all summer, finding ways to get into the right spot at the right time," Kaufman said. "I really feel that this year I have done that...but success hasn't come of it yet, but I am confident that it's going to come, and that's my biggest goal that I want to start capitalizing. It's the same with every player on the team, everyone is working 100 percent, and you just got that feeling that eventually its all going to come together."

Even though the Wildcats haven't reached their goal of a .500 season, Kaufman said the improvement between this year's team and the previous year's are like night and day.

"The biggest thing about this year's team, I think especially compared to last year, is that I think we have 26 girls on the team," Kaufman said. "So we have more than enough; more than 11 players who are working 100 percent and are out there. Coach is trying to get everybody in, in the best way they can help the team."