This is only the start of a long career for Carleigh Frilles.
Carleigh Frilles is only 21, but she has already gotten valuable experience in life and in football after playing for the Philippine women's national football team in the FIFA Women's World Cup. The Filipinas rose two spots in the world rankings after that historic debut. Frilles, meanwhile, has also had significant gains for herself.
In fact, she's using those World Cup lessons to further develop with US NCAA Division 1 squad Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Rams as they compete in the Atlantic 10 conference.
For one thing, the midfielder/forward has learned to block out all the noise, as she recounted facing a loud home crowd in New Zealand.
"I feel like I tuned everything out, somehow tuned out 40,000 people," Frilles recounted to VCU Athletics.
"I just wanted to get out the field and work as hard as I could and show why I was in the World Cup, show what the Philippines is all about."
But the most important thing for Frilles is developing that sense of family.
"I've learned the importance of not only being teammates, but being sisters and being family," she admitted.
"I think it's really cool VCU Women's Soccer already established that. I wasn't expecting that when I came here," Frilles added.
The team culture here is truly not like any other team I've been on. The girls are so suportive and so close. I've only been here for like a month and I feel like I've known some of these girls for years."
And what better way to develop chemistry than being with people you can trust?
"I just feel a true sense of belonging here and I think what I've learned with the national team has helped me here because I've learned to really integrate myself into this team and understand them on a more personal level and really bond with them," Frilles reflected.
And she has delivered her best performance for the Rams so far. In Frilles' ninth game for the squad last Sunday, she attempted three shots within 23 minutes against George Mason. Two of them were shots on goal.
VCU won that match, 5-0.
(GM)