By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The biggest academic challenge at Catawba College for future teacher Lillie Rusher was getting school work done on those long road trips as a member of the soccer team.

“That was the big adjustment to college academics,” Rusher said. “Managing time, planning ahead, finding those hours to get the work done between games and practices. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one in that boat. A lot of teammates were doing the same thing, so it was a shared, bonding experience And I never had a single professor who wasn’t accommodating and understanding. They realize what a commitment it is to play a college sport.”

Rusher could not have done any better academically. She has been named as the South Atlantic Conference Scholar-Athlete for women’s soccer.

She’s on track to graduate this spring as a model student-athlete. She has received Academic All-America recognition, along with teammates Kylie Morin and Kelly Havens. She’ll take a 4.0 GPA into her final college semester. That’s perfection.

“My last semester at Catawba will be the student-teaching part of the teaching requirement,” Rusher said. “I just found out the other day that I’ll be doing it close to home — at West Rowan.”

Rusher’s goal is to be an English teacher. Her core classes at Catawba have been in literature, language and writing.

“That was the plan when I came to Catawba and it’s worked out about as well as I could have hoped for,” Rusher said. “I got to play soccer in front of my family and friends. I couldn’t have asked for a better four years.”

Rusher was such a good athlete at Salisbury High that she made All-State in two different sports, which obviously is a rare feat. She was a big part of Salisbury’s 2017 tennis state champs and she was the Central Carolina Conference Player of the Year for that sport in 2019.

Tennis and soccer may have been neck-and-neck for her in her early years, but soccer eventually won out as her favorite. She was the CCC Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019. She was All-State three times.

Rusher scored quite a few goals (25) in high school for coach Matt Parrish, but she was an even better goal-facilitator for scorers such as Julia Honeycutt and Sutton Webb. Rusher piled up 85 career assists, breaking the school record.

In college, she made a successful transition from an attacking midfielder to center back, the anchor of the defense. She also took the corner kicks for the Indians.

“Everyone on our team is a good player, so there was always internal competition just to earn playing time, but that competition pushed all of us in a good way,” Rusher said. “It’s a culture that has helped us be successful.”

She scored 10 college goals for coach Nick Brown. As a senior, she had four goals and seven assists and was second team All-South Atlantic Conference.

Two of her goals this season were large. On opening night, her PK decided a 3-2 match with nationally ranked Embry-Riddle. In a 1-0 win against Tusculum, she scored directly on a corner kick for the only goal of the match. She had the assist on a corner kick on the go-ahead goal against Flagler in the regional.

“There were a lot of adjustments going from the midfield to playing primarily a defensive role,” Rusher said. “The speed of play is so much different in college than it was in high school. Because of that you have to move the ball more quickly and you have to make decisions more quickly.”

Her favorite Catawba soccer memory will be from November 2023, an epic 2-1 overtime victory against North Georgia in a regional semifinal. Catawba trailed 1-0 the entire second half, but Bree Ehmer scored with four minutes left in regulation. Rusher had the assist for the equalizer.

Then Ehmer scored again in overtime for the win.

“Just a crazy game and a win worth celebrating and remembering,” Rusher said.

Rusher also has some favorite Catawba sports memories that took place away from Frock Field.

Her brother, catcher Bo Rusher, who is two years older, transferred to Catawba from Gardner-Webb for his final year of college baseball, and Lillie got to cheer him on last spring, along with her family, at Newman Park. Bo had a spectacular season for the Indians and was first team All-SAC.

“I got to see Bo play more at Catawba in that one season than I did in his four years at Salisbury High,” Lillie said. “I was always so busy with soccer when he was playing high school baseball.”