Purcellville, Va. — Loudoun Valley High School senior Allison Traub has made a verbal commitment to continue her academic and soccer career at the University of Tampa beginning in the 2019-2020 school year.
“Tampa is beautiful,” Traub said. “Everything felt right when I first got on campus.”
Traub’s journey to Tampa, however, wasn’t an easy one as she experienced many hardships during her recruiting process.
“My recruiting process was stressful. I committed to the University of Saint Leo in June 2018,” Traub said. “Then six months later, I was told the head coach had been let go and that I no longer had my scholarship.”
[adrotate banner=”29″]While battling personal things in her life, Traub almost lost all hope of playing in college. That is until the University of Tampa expressed interest in her.
“The University of Tampa started talking to me, and then I visited,” Traub said. “A few weeks after my visit, I committed.”
Traub – who has been playing soccer for the past 15 years – has always known she wanted to play at the next level.
“I’ve always known I have wanted to play in college,” Traub said. “I used to tell my mom that she was going to see me playing soccer on TV one day.”
While not on TV, Traub has been a part of the Loudoun Valley soccer team for the past four years and spends her off-seasons playing basketball for the Vikings. Traub has been the Vikings’ goalkeeper since her freshman year and helped lead Loudoun Valley to a Dulles District semifinal last season.
“Allison always wants to do her best for herself and the team,” Loudoun Valley head coach Kerry Davidson said. “She hates losing, so she works hard to avoid that.”
Traub will take that winning mentality to the west coast of Florida this fall to help the Division II Spartans. Led by fourth-year head coach Erin Switalski, the Tampa women’s soccer team finished 7-6-4 overall in 2018.
“I couldn’t be more happier than I am right now. It is a dream come true to get an education and play soccer at the same time,” Traub said. “Tampa feels like family.”
