LIANNA SOIFUA

My soccer career began at the age of 9. I competed in AYSO and was later recruited by a club coach. I played for Coach Andy Winn in Irvine, California on Blades FC and Slammers FC from 2009-2014. Within those years, we played in various tournaments like Surf Cup, highly competitive brackets of future college competitors. My family moved to Las Vegas in 2014. I continued to play at Green Valley High School where I was selected as a starter on Varsity all 3 years I played there. My senior year, I was a captain and contributed to my teams adventure to Reno, Nevada after winning reigonals. Outside of school, I played one season with Coach Chris Shaw, former UNLV Women's Coach at Downtown FC in 2015. The following seasons, I played for Coach Amanda Schmutz and Key Reid at Heat FC. After graduating high school, I chose to play at the College of Southern Nevada under the direction of Coach Geoff Hawkins from 2018-2020. Both years I attended CSN I was a captain and starter. I then continued my college soccer career at Benedictine University in Mesa, Arizona and named a captain there as well for the year I attended. My biggest honor and accomplishment is playing for the Samoan National Team. I have traveled to New Zealand, Samoa, and Fiji to compete against other countries for a place in the Fifa Women's World Cup and the Olympic level. In, November of 2023, I competed in the South Pacific Games located in the Solomon Islands for Team Samoa. Soon after, Samoa hosted the Olympic qualifiers in January 2024. This tournament was especially memorable to play in since we were on home turf and I was named captain of Team Samoa.