SOCCER
THE KRZECZOWSKI EXPERIENCE Record-setting keeper ends career as one of most celebrated players in Gamecock history
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By Josh Hyber | Staff writer • Photos by Allen Sharpe and SC Athletics
t poured in Columbia on the afternoon of Nov. 27, 2019 — torrential rain soaked the grass field next to South Carolina’s outdoor track & field facility — and Mikayla Krzeczowski was still outside, diving and jumping and sliding on the grass to make saves. Her blonde hair drenched and her thighs muddied, the South Carolina women’s goalkeeper was not taking anything for granted. This was two days before her team’s Elite Eight
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matchup against Washington State, her final game at Stone Stadium, and the senior needed her reps. The rain finally let up, and she moved to team workouts. “If you don’t know what you’re going to do with the ball, don’t get it,” she yelled at teammates. “Shoot it! Don’t pass it. Come on!” “Don’t shoot it back across. Too easy!”
It was the full Krzeczowski Experience — a mix of passion, skill, leadership and thoughtfulness. Though Krzeczowski and her teammates fell to the Cougars 1-0 in overtime, preventing a second NCAA Tournament Final Four trip in three seasons, the keeper finished her career as one of the most celebrated players in program history. In four seasons, Krzeczowski played more minutes than any keeper (she never missed a game) and finished with the three best individual season goals-against averages. She shattered the South Carolina record with 50 career shutouts (third-most all-time in NCAA history) and won the 2019 SEC Goalkeeper of the Year. As a team, she led the Gamecocks to the 2017 Final Four and two Elite Eights. “I always said she had a great defense in front of her, and I know she credits her success a lot to who she played with, but really they played their best because of her,” Gamecock head coach Shelley Smith told Spurs & Feathers. In a 35-minute interview with Spurs & Feathers, Krzeczowski reflected on her career. “I’ve been able to look back on the last four years, everything my team and I accomplished, and it’s a lot,” she said. “It’s definitely overwhelming. It’s cool to see the program from where it was then to what it is now. Just the little things. Now we have a trophy case. Just the little details added to the mix, it was cool to be a part of.” Krzeczowski etched her name in stone alongside the program’s legends and continued the celebrated lineage of keepers the team has had under Smith — from Lindsay Thorstenson and Laura Armstrong to Mollie Patton and Sabrina D’Angelo. “I never forget my freshman year. I was so nervous, thinking, ‘The goalkeeper position is such a huge part of this program,’” Krzeczowski said. “At the time I didn’t feel like I was adequate enough. But I had an upperclassman tell me, ‘Hey, Sabrina was great, but don’t worry about being her. Just be you. And the rest will come.’” It did. “I want people to look back on my four years and know I gave everything I had,” Krzeczowski said. “My goal, and our goal as a class, was to leave the program better than we found it. I just hope my years were memorable for fans and teammates and my family. And to remember that I was a hard worker. “I just wanted to win for this program.” “Mikayla showed tremendous heart and competitiveness,” Smith said. “Mikayla, the team she led, had the most success [of any teams in program history].”
A GAMECOCK LEGEND “We call ourselves goal-creatures,” South Carolina assistant coach Clark McCarthy, who trains the team’s keepers, says about
JANUARY 2020
