Less than a month into her career as a Badger, Kinley McNicoll is making a name for herself on the field for the Wisconsin women’s soccer team.

The freshman midfielder jumped right into collegiate play, starting all six games for the Badgers (5-1-0) this season. But beyond achieving a starting position, McNicoll has been a key source of offensive production for UW. With just four returning starters from last season, the team needed a new face to step up, and head coach Paula Wilkins sees McNicoll filling that role.

“She is a good soccer player – she has a good soccer brain and her energy and work rate is fantastic,” Wilkins said. “I couldn’t ask for anything different from a player out there.”

McNicoll has already tallied seven points this season, good for second-best on the team. Her role as the primary player taking corner kicks for UW has led to a pair of goals for the Badgers.

And the outside midfielder also has scored two goals of her own, against South Dakota State and Loyola Marymount, games in which she also posted multiple points.

According to McNicoll, her success on the field is little more than the product of a good relationship with her forwards off the field.

“We have to be able to read each other on and off the field. We have to have a good bond with each other,” McNicoll said. “If that bond comes, then the passes will get to each other and that’s why we have been successful.”

Watching McNicoll run up and down the side of the field, her raw speed is difficult to ignore. That quickness, combined with the consistency of her play, has made it easy for teammates to incorporate her talents into their game.

“Kinley is just a really good player, and so it is easy to learn her tendencies,” sophomore forward Cara Walls said. “She likes to dribble and attack, so it is our job to support her and give her angles. It is really great having her.”

The quickness of play in college soccer was something McNicoll said she has had to get used to during the first few games. But college life itself has not been a hard adjustment for her.

“The team has made the transition easy, and I am so thankful for that, especially coming from a distance,” McNicoll said. “I am absolutely loving it here.”

Growing up in Ontario, Canada, McNicoll developed a love for soccer at a young age. She began playing at the age of three to keep up with her older brother and found herself active in a variety of sports including cross country, track, swimming, karate and horseback riding.

After receiving attention for her high school play, McNicoll said she decided college soccer had a definite place in her future.

“Ever since I started playing varsity and prep, people started to say, ‘you have potential,'” she said. “So I set my standards and knew college soccer is where I want to be.”

McNicoll was initially attracted to Wisconsin because of the large presence of Canadian natives already involved in the women’s soccer program. At the top of that list are assistant coach Tim Rosenfeld and forward Kodee Williams, who McNicoll played with prior to arriving in Madison.

The addition of Carmelina Moscato to the coaching staff last week brings an even greater sense of home to McNicoll. Moscato competed in the 2012 Olympics with the Canadian team and played collegiately for Penn State.

Beyond the field, McNicoll said she fell in love with more than just the soccer program.

“It is really like home and when I first came to visit. I fell in love with the team and fell in love with the atmosphere, the school itself,” McNicoll said. “The people here, the school itself – it is like Canada. The atmosphere and the friendliness of everyone is amazing.”

Off the field McNicoll has turned her love for the game into an interest in physiotherapy and plans on majoring in kinesiology.

“I know what it is like to be injured, and I know the drive and the passion and the need to get back to it, so that is what I see myself doing in the near future, and I hope I can do it,” she said. “I hope it works.” 

The passion she has displayed both on and off the field in her short time as a Badger has driven her teammates to work hard to match such consistency.

“She is very regimented and consistent with what you are going to get out of her,” Wilkins said. “I call her a solider – a solider on the team.”