When the Tennessee women’s soccer team kicks their game off against the Missouri Tigers this Sunday at 4 p.m., Tennessee senior defender and team captain Allie Sirna will step onto the field where she has created so many memories for the last time.
After experiencing four years playing in Regal Soccer Stadium, Sirna will finally have to say farewell on Sunday to all the Tennessee fans who have watched her grow from a freshman learning from the upperclassmen to a senior team leader.
It will definitely be an emotional senior night for the Solon, Ohio native.
“It is bittersweet,” Sirna said. “I have always looked at senior night as a way to recognize people who have made a huge impact on the team. It is going to be sad, I mean who doesn’t get sad playing their last game at home in front of all your fans for the past four years? But you know it is also a moment where you can set back and see everything that you have done for Tennessee, and be able to have people cheer for you.
“It is definitely going to be bittersweet and I am going to be sad, that is an emotion you can’t avoid. But at the same time, I want to go out happy as well.”
Sirna will not be the only emotional person on the field Sunday. In fact, Tennessee head soccer coach Brian Pensky admitted he has been dreading Sirna’s senior night for two years.
“It is going to be a very sad day because there are certain players you have in your program, and I knew this as a sophomore, that when they are younger, you kind of fear, or don’t look forward to the day they are finished in your program,” Pensky said. “Because they are so good, so dependable, and they are such great people.
“She is one of those kids that I clearly remember her sophomore years being thankful for, ‘okay good, two more years of Allie Sirna. Two more years with that kid in your back line and that kid leading your team’ and Sunday means that it is over.”
But what made Sirna initially decide to spend her four years of college playing soccer for the Tennessee women’s soccer team – a team where she has made tremendous contributions both on and off the field?
According to Sirna, the decision to play for UT was a matter of being different from her teammates on her club soccer team in Ohio.
“I think I wanted to get away, a lot of my club teammates were going to schools in Ohio,” Sirna said. “I just wanted to be different and then when I heard that Tennessee was looking at me, I came and instantly fell in love with the campus.”
Sirna is the anchor in Tennessee’s backline and while she may not be the player to score the winning goal for the Lady Vols, she makes certain the opposing team has very few opportunities to score goals against Tennessee.
Sirna has started in each of the 79 games that she has played in her Tennessee career and has had very few opportunities to rest during those games as she has clocked in 7,246 minutes of playing time while wearing a Lady Vol uniform.
While coach Pensky acknowledged Sirna’s importance to the Lady Volunteer soccer program on the field, he also discussed what type of teammate Sirna was off the field.
“She is an unbelievable teammate to everybody,” Pensky said. “Whether it is the best player on team or the kid who gets no minutes, she treats everybody like gold. That is where Allie is unique and special.”
And as her long career at Tennessee is winding to a close, Sirna maintains she must just keep her focus on the next task at hand.
“You just got to take it one game at a time, I can’t think about it possibly being my last three games,” Sirna said. “You just have to give everything for the game in front of you and then hope you get the best results you want.”
