For many first-year college athletes, adjusting to the speed and higher demands of college athletics can prove difficult. This year, Blazer soccer's first-year defenders Ellie Mullen (Portland, Ore,) and Leah Powlison (Canby Ore.) are mastering these obstacles seemingly effortlessly, as both have made major impacts to help their new squad protect the net.

What makes Mullen and Powlison's accomplishments even more astonishing is that both moved to Saint Benedict from the great state of Oregon. Powlison downplays this as much of an obstacle, saying, “adjusting to Minnesota has actually been pretty easy, it's not too different from Oregon and everyone here is so nice so it's really been a smooth transition.”

In Oregon, Mullen and Powlison played for different high schools, but knew each other from a club team they played on together for the past five years. They claim the choice to both come to Minnesota didn't factor into their decisions to come here, but knowing each other was definitely a bonus once they arrived.

“We came here for different reasons, but we did visit together," said Mullen. "Then we realized we could live together and both play here together the way we have the past five years. It definitely made me more enthusiastic to come here knowing that she was coming here too.”

“We're kind of our own little family, we live together, we go to dinner together, ride the bus together and do everything together. It's good to have someone to lean on and depend on that you know really well,” said Powlison.

Having that relationship with each other has eased their transition to college life, and allowed them to focus more on transitioning athletically and making an impact on their new team, a transition they have conquered equally as skillfully.

Mullen has started eight of the Blazer's 12 games so far this season. Powlison's presence has been accelerating as the year has progressed, starting three recent games alongside Mullen. In those three games they helped anchor a defense that held their opponents to 32 total shots, while moving the ball up to a Blazer offense that mustered 45 shots over the same three games.

Throughout the season, both have played integral parts on a defense that has held opponents to an average of six shots per game this season. Playing with such a suffocating defense has given the Blazer offense more possession of the ball, allowing them to outshoot their opponents 186-128 and average nine shots on goal per game.

Neither came into the season expecting to start, but both had specific goals and knew they had a chance to make plays on a defense that lost a host of talent to graduation after last season.

“For me, my individual goal was to be an impact player on the back line, be able to communicate to my whole team,” said Powlison

“Coming in after such a strong back line they had last year, our goal was to try to recreate that, we knew we had big shoes to fill. We both tried to work with everybody else and take constructive criticism to play at the level they were at last year,” said Mullen.

With only three games left in the conference season, Mullen and Powlison now will have a chance to continue to prove their maturity and ability as the games begin to mean more. In terms of MIAC playoffs, the Blazers are right in the thick of it. Four teams will make the conference tournament at the end of the year, and they currently sit third. And with three games left – including a match with league leading Concordia – anything could happen.

This weekend, though, the friends and roommates from Oregon will take a break from MIAC play, hosting UW-Whitewater at 1 p.m., Oct. 13.