From U.S. to Spain and back

The Brahmas’ defensive rock in front of

of trophies in her years as a soccer player.

@ZGroffNews

Regardless of the city or country, Pierce College goalkeeper Cindy Godina has always played hard.

From Santa Monica to Spain and now Woodland Hills, Godina has gone from being a 5-year-old afraid of the ball to stopping them for teams across the globe.

Godina has played for teams and clubs including the Granada United Football Club, and a club in Santander, Spain.

Before becoming a Brahma, Godina played for the Santa Monica Corsairs in 2012. She remembered the times when she had to face her current team.

“My favorite soccer moment was when we played a tournament in Nomad [California]. It was a semifinal game and I blocked all the penalty kicks,” Godina said.

Godina’s favorite player is Jan Oblak, who plays for her favorite team, Atletico Madrid.

“The way he plays is just amazing,” Godina said. “His technique and the way he communicates is just great.”

Goalies often have to coordinate and arrange the defense, sometimes by yelling commands in order to communicate to their teammates.

“When it comes to the game, what I have to do is yell at them to direct them,” Godina said. “On the field I am a very talkative person.”

“[When] playing against Pierce, we had to go hard,” Godina said. “We had to win the game.”

Between her years at Santa Monica and her current season as a Brahma, Godina took a sabbatical from college to play abroad in Spain as a member of Granada United.

“My favorite trophy was winning State Cup with Granada United, my last year of playing club,” Godina said.

Godina has brought home plenty

Godina warms up for games by listening to spanish music by her favorite musician, Marc Anthony.

For Godina, being a Brahma is not being a part of an entirely new team.

“Most of these girls I [have] played with in club from the State Cup team, so we just have a bond together,” Godina said.

Sophomore defender Stephanie Alcazar, has played with Godina on both Granada United and Pierce

College. “She is the rock to the whole team,” Alcazar said. “Everybody [is] part of the team, but in order to have an even stronger team, you have to have the strongest in the back.”

Throughout the season, Godina has made 28 saves according the California Community College Ath-

Wednesday again so I think we came in ready to work hard.”

Kristen White, a freshman and outside hitter played through a sprained ankle.

“It was a good match. I sprained my ankle on Sunday, it’s really bad...I was out Monday. I didn’t get to serve Wednesday, and I’m number four in the western conference for serving so I wanted to come back strong and really bring it to the court,” White said.

The desire to win drove both teams into a 15-15 tie in the fourth set. The Brahma’s defense resembled a brick wall, and the Pirates returned heavy fi re.

In the fi nal moments of the fourth and fi nal set, the score was 25-24 with Pierce needing one last point to end the match. The Pirates failed keep the ball alive on a spike to end the game, and

Brahma

Volleyball

letic Association.

“I think it was the fifth minute of the second half, and a player from Fresno made a shot to the right hand corner and she made an amazing save.” said Assistant Coach Cruz Hernandez.

the Brahmas celebrated the team’s hard earned victory. Surprising still is the fact the former number 20 team in the state pushed Pierce into four sets before losing the game. “That’s the number one team in the state right there. They’re number one, and we just did that to them,” Lyans said.