The NIU women’s soccer team has players on its team from DeKalb to England, yet there are four Huskies that have the same hometown.

NIU women’s soccer features four members who went to Nequa Valley High School in Naperville.

Freshmen defense/midfielder Lauren Noonan and forward Allie McBride both attended Nequa Valley for four years together, and now are teammates at NIU.

Noonan and McBride also played alongside junior midfielder/forward Shelbi Johnson and sophomore defense/midfielder Courtney Ksiazek.

During their time at Nequa Valley, Noonan and McBride went to the regional championship all four years, winning it during their senior year.

They both have similar opinions on the difficulties of playing collegiate soccer.

Noonan and McBride agreed there’s a big difference in the speed of play at the college level.

“Strength-wise, in terms of aggressiveness, [it’s faster],” added Noonan.

Weight lifting is also a new experience for them.

McBride said since the two played together for so long, they are familiar with each other on the field.

“We definitely know each other’s tendencies,” McBride said. “I know exactly how she plays, and I’m sure she knows how I play. We also played with Courtney and Shelbi. We didn’t play with them as long, but we still know their play pretty well.”

The teammates also find time to have fun while working.

“[McBride] would announce each and every play for the press box in different accents,” Noonan said.

Johnson said there were benefits from playing at Nequa.

“We had a really solid coaching staff that helped bring our group together on the field as well as off the field.” Johnson said.

Ksiazek credited her high school coaches for breeding a positive atmosphere for playing.

“I think it was the genuine values and care that they had for our team, and the coaching experience behind it,” Ksiazek said. “Just the general atmosphere they wanted to create allowed a lot of the players there to blossom into the players they are.”

With Johnson and Ksiazek already in NIU’s system, they helped Noonan and McBride become familiar with not only the soccer team, but also the school itself.

“I went over to Allie’s a couple times to help her with stuff she needed for school and [Noonan] texted me all the time,” Johnson said.

Already having some established relationships made the transition easy.

“[Lauren and Allie] knew to come to us, which helped them transition quicker,” Ksiazek said.