Winning the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship is at the top of Nicole Fairbanks' bucket list. If she and her Chico State women's soccer team achieves that goal this season, the example she sets and the way she is playing deserve a great deal of credit. After recovering from consecutive torn ACLs, Fairbanks has now started 19 consecutive matches for the Wildcats.
Fairbanks' commitment to the program has helped net her a position of leadership on the team, which the junior from Livermore (Granada High School) has run with, a metamorphosis head coach Kim Sutton is ecstatic about.
"She's become the leader we knew she could be," Sutton said. "She's a motivator. An inspirational vocal leader for the whole team."
Since Fairbanks took over the starting center back position full time, the Wildcats are 10-3-6 overall and have posted 12 shutouts in those 19 matches, allowing more than one goal only once. The Wildcat of the Week was in her best form yet last week as the Wildcats split two matches on a road trip to Washington. Fairbanks and the Wildcats limited host Central Washington to seven shots (two on goal) in a 2-0 win Thursday. Saturday, Fairbanks and the Wildcats limited 5th-ranked Seattle Pacific to 13 shots (three on goal) in a 1-0 loss.
She appears to be improving with each match, perhaps continuing to remove the rust from three years away from the game. Fairbanks, who has played every minute of the Wildcats' last 13 matches, nearly netted the equalizer with just 72 seconds remaining in regulation, slamming a shot from 25 yards off the crossbar.
Fairbanks and the Wildcats (2-1-1) will be back in action at home this week, hosting Azusa Pacific Thursday at 7 p.m. and Biola Saturday at 12:30.
