Local HS soccer star doing well in college, Lions Star Lily Sutter is ready to roar into action.
Lily Sutter local soccer star from Dunlap Illinois, has been rising into the big leagues of division one soccer at Lindenwood university and is chasing for more success this season and a title.
Peoria has produced many outstanding athletes, from Dunlap high-school and Northwestern University football Player Charlie Mangeiri, to Creighton University and Dunlap soccer star Nic Senek, to Four star athlete football star and FIU wide receiver Josiah Mieman, Arizona State Basketball player Adam Miller aka “Ace Wolf” and so many others. However, one Athlete that is entering there third season as a Junior for the Lindenwood Lady Lions, sophomore Forward Lily Sutter.
Sutter Has been with the Lindenwood program for two years and is one player that has broken away from the pack and has become a star in the making. Overall her first two seasons at Lindenwood have been very up and down, especially with having injured her shoulder, and missing a great amount of time. However, through her resilience and drive to be the best, she was able to overcome the injury and is ready to dominate on the field.
After a successful HS career where she compiled 50 goals, 24 assists, she was Central Illinois Player of the Year, earned an all-state selection, two-time all-area, two-time all midi Illini conference, and a three-time regional champion and 1x time sectional champion. Sutter took her elite talents to Lindenwood University
In 2022, she appeared in 20 games and made 18 starts in her Freshman year and led the team in assists as a freshman and scored her first goal against Southern Indiana. Later, in 2023, Sutter had a shorter season, due to injury and only appeared in 16 games, and her numbers had dipped and she did not have the best season of her overall soccer career.
I sat down with Sutter to discuss the trials and tribulations and she had a lot to say on the topics at hand.
How would you describe the overall culture of Lindenwood Soccer and what is your biggest takeaway from last season and how would you overall describe your first two seasons and what are your expectations going into your junior season.
The overall culture is centered around the fact that you have to love the sport you play and always have to be ready to go when your number is called, be it in a game or in practice. And there was a lot to take away from last year, mainly the number one thing is that I have to get more comfortable on the ball, and being able to dribble and stay calm and find the correct plays to make. And overall just adapt and understand that the skill of the college level takes time to get comfortable with and I have finally found my footing, but it wasn’t easy. But also you have to prepare for the change of speed and learn and keep your cool under pressure at the college level, and I learned this my freshman year and kept it heavily in mind, my sophomore year. And I was held to a higher standard freshman year, because since I was starting in a majority of the games the opposing team's best defenders were often times put on me and that definitely took some getting used to. Ultimately I took it as a sign of respect and it helped me get better as a player and I felt like the opposition saw me as a good player which made me more confident. And going into this upcoming spring season and my Junior season, individually I want to score more goals and ready to bounce back with the great group of girls we have and there is a lot of incoming freshman who are really good and there is a huge desire to win this year and with this group and I think we could definitely win a championship next year in the fall season. And I think with the amount of talent coming and the experienced players will be able to lead the younger ones to be great and we could make a good run for a chip.
Your Stats took a dip this sophomore year and you have overcome a really bad injury to your shoulder. When you got injured, was your confidence heavily shaken, and did that impact how you view the game as a whole and how you view the whole team's season?
Ya definitely. So what basically happened is that I tore my labrum, and had surgery in 2022, and the rehab journey was very long. I was out for a great majority of the sophomore fall season and that really shook my confidence. But it also was shaken because this past fall season we had at one point lost 6 games in a row and the team was not clicking and we had to figure out how to bounce back and come together as a unit. Which is why this upcoming spring season and fall season there is more belief and unity now, because we now know that the way we played this fall was unacceptable and we need to get better.
Growing in Peoria Illinois you have many teammates that you have formed many close bonds with, one of them is a player who goes to ISU named Sammi Cenek and you guys played them your freshman year and according to your schedule you play them again in the fall correct? So what was it like playing against an old teammate and friend at the collegiate level?
For sure, it was really weird playing against her, especially because we did talk about it as the weeks led up to it and I know we will talk about the matchup in the fall. And on the day of the game her team and her did talk some trash, but I never really let that phase me. Rather I just stayed calm and focused on playing the game and getting the win. Unfortunately, we lost that game and she got bragging rights, for now. I definitely wanna get even and settle the score with her and I’m looking forward to that match up in the fall.
Lily Sutter has faced many ups and downs during her first two seasons of college ball, especially facing injury and former teammates as well. However, Sutter is motivated along with her fellow lions to bounce back this season and make a legitimate case to lift a conference championship this year and bring back the winning culture to Lindenwood women’s soccer.