When Kristen Morency broke her collarbone in the first game of the 2015 women's soccer season -- her scheduled senior year at John Brown -- she had no way of knowing how much she would reap the benefits from it down the road.
The injury forced Morency to miss nearly all of the 2015 campaign and she opted to take a redshirt season, giving her an extra year of eligibility.
Morency, a 5-foot-9 goalkeeper from Wheaton, Ill., is making the most of that extra season in 2016, as she and the No. 14-ranked Golden Eagles (18-1-1) have enjoyed one of the best years in program history, winning the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season championship and tournament title.
As a reward for that, the Golden Eagles are headed to Lebanon (Tenn.) on Thursday to prepare for a first-round NAIA National Tournament match at Cumberland (Tenn.) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
It's Morency's second trip to the NAIA Tournament, having played in it at Concordia (Calif.) as a sophomore in 2013 as part of the Golden Eagles' Cinderella run through the SAC Tournament.
Morency's happy to get another chance to play in the national tournament, but she knows it wouldn't be possible without the fateful day on Aug. 21, 2015, at William Carey in Hattiesburg (Miss.) when she broke her collarbone.
"It was a bummer at first getting hurt in the first game of my senior year, but honestly it turned into the biggest blessing that could have happened," Morency said. "It allowed me to take that redshirt year and allowed me to stay and be a part of this team in 2016, and honestly, I'm glad I broke my collar bone. I'm glad things worked out the way they did because it was cool to see the Lord's faithfulness in the last two years of life."
Morency will go down as one of the most decorated women's soccer players to ever put on a JBU uniform or play in the Sooner Athletic Conference for that matter.
She's been named the conference's Defensive Player of the Year four times (2012, 2013, 2014, 2016), been on several postseason award-teams and earned multiple conference and national player of the week awards in her time.
She's the program's all-time leader with 50 wins, 37 shutouts and 76 games played. She has 331 career saves and posted 11 shutouts this season alone for the Golden Eagles.
"I'm really humbled," Morency said. "It's a cool thing to get (awards), but it's also a marker of our backline and everyone else on the field. If I was the only one there, we'd lose every game and it would be awful. I wouldn't get anywhere without my teammates and my coaches."
John Brown women's coach Kathleen Paulsen said Morency is a competitor who shows up in big moments and makes big saves.
"I think for any team to be successful it requires at least one big save in matches, and we've seen her do it time and time again," Paulsen said. "She's kept us in a lot of matches in my years here. She's always given us a chance."
Morency's road to John Brown is a fun story too.
She played her high school ball at Wheaton Academy in Illinois where she was coached her first three seasons by Scott Marksberry, who's the former JBU women's head coach and now the Golden Eagles men's soccer coach.
Marksberry took the head women's job at JBU in 2011 -- which was Morency's senior year of high school -- but he then started recruiting her to come to JBU.
"(Marksberry) left to come coach here," Morency. "He started recruiting me. I came and visited. I loved the school, and I knew the kind of program he could build. I trusted his leadership, so I committed, and I came and it was a great freshman year."
Marksberry took the men's job in 2013, and Morency admits the coaching transition was tough on her. Paulsen was hired shortly afterward and the Golden Eagles have gone 56-19-9 ever since then, including four straight Sooner Athletic Conference title games.
"Going through the coaching transition was a little rough," Morency said before smiling at Paulsen, who was sitting beside her, "but obviously it's fine now."
Marksberry, whose men's team is also playing in the national tournament, said it's been fun to watch his former high school and college player succeed.
"She's grown up a lot since she was a 14- to 15-year-old girl," Marksberry said. He recalled first meeting Morency on a cold, snowy day in Wheaton when he was first hired there as head coach.
"We used trash cans as goalposts," Marksberry said. "I couldn't unlock the goalposts becauseI didn't have a key to them. I guess they lock them up there and it was my first day on the job."
Morency has already received her four-year degree from John Brown and is currently working on her master's degree. She plans on playing soccer overseas in Sweden once she's done at John Brown.
"She's a neat kid," Marksberry said. "She's a special one. I'm really happy for her."
JBU vs. Cumberland
The Golden Eagles will face a Cumberland team on Saturday that wound up as the 16th seed in the national tournament. JBU finished ranked No. 14 in the final NAIA National Coaches Top 25 Poll, two spots ahead of No. 16 Cumberland.
However the final MRPI (Modified Percentage Ratings Index) dictates the seeds for the NAIA Tournament, and the Top 25 poll is just a part of that percentage. Cumberland finished with a higher MRPI than JBU.
Cumberland finished 12-4-2 overall and finished second in the Mid-South Conference and lost 2-1 to No. 4 Lindsey Wilson (Tenn.) in the MSC Tournament finals.
"We're excited," Paulsen said. "I think it's going to be a good matchup. They are the team right above us. It's a solid matchup for sure. They're good. Just watching them they've got some solid players, but I think we're up for it."
Sports on 11/16/2016