Carina Lageyre’s rookie season had a slow start.
The midfielder from Duke played just seven minutes in the first two games of the season and then went five consecutive games in which she didn’t see the field.
Since then, it’s as if her name has been written in marker on the Angel City FC starting lineup. Lageyre has started nine consecutive games heading into Sunday’s road meeting against the Seattle Reign.
“I feel like it’s been fulfilling to have earned a role on the field, but it took a lot of hard work,” she said. “Coming in, grinding it out and learning from all the amazing players around me. It’s been so much fun, just trying to absorb as much as possible.
“It’s been a crazy journey and there’s definitely moments where you’re like, ‘Wow, this is another level.’ But I think it’s been super rewarding in the end and there’s so much more for me to grow. It’s exciting that every day, I’m getting challenged by these great players around me.”
Lageyre signed a three-year contract with Angel City after a four-year career at Duke.
“She’s performed very well, she is good both on and off the ball,” Angel City interim coach Leif Smerud said of Lageyre. “She’s a team player, she can set up our play on the ball and she defends a lot of space and protects the team as well.”
Lageyre’s pro debut consisted of just a six-minute spell against the Chicago Stars, followed by a one-minute appearance the following week against Bay FC.
“College is physical, but the physicality here is another level,” she said of the differences between playing in college and at the professional level. “I think just getting stronger. I really worked out hard in the gym to get stronger and get more powerful and then the decision-making. You have to be really switched on at all time. I like to check my shoulders a lot, but you kind of have to do it double the amount that you would in college just because picture changes so fast. I think that adjustment has been something that I’ve been working on.”
She added that the speed of the game was also an adjustment.
“It’s definitely different,” she said. “Duke definitely prepared me. I feel like the style that we play, possession style and keeping the ball and moving, it has definitely prepared me, but you don’t really experience it to get to this level when you’re playing such amazing, against such amazing players.”
Angel City is 3-1-1 since the NWSL restarted and is up to 23 points, beginning the week in the eighth and final playoff spot and tied with Seattle. Last week, Angel City (7-7-2) fought for a 1-1 draw on the road against the Kansas City Current.
“I think that was a good point,” Smerud said. “I think it could have gone our way and we could have gotten the three (points), but we could have also conceded more. It was a tight game. They had some good periods and we had some good periods, we had some big chances, so the point in Kansas is good.”
Angel City hasn’t had much success against Seattle, winning just three times in 12 games (3-9-1). The teams split their two meetings last season.
ANGEL CITY FC (7-7-2, 23 points) at SEATTLE REIGN FC (7-7-2, 23 points)
When: 6 p.m. Sunday
Where: Lumen Field, Seattle
How to watch: ESPN