The past four years of women’s soccer at Wisconsin has amounted to 41 wins, 20 conferences wins, two trips to the NCAA tournament and one Sweet 16 appearance. While the team has evolved over this time, one factor remained constant – the presence of Monica Lam-Feist in the midfield.

Lam-Feist joined the Badger family in 2009 and instantly found herself taking on a starting role as an attacking midfielder. Since then, she has started all but two games in her four years at Wisconsin.

Now in her final season, Lam-Feist’s time on the field is approaching its final days.

Friday’s 2-1 victory over Northwestern was also Senior Night for the Badgers (10-5-1, 3-4-1 Big Ten), and the overtime win over Illinois Sunday marked the last time Lam-Feist and her fellow seniors would step onto their home field.

“This weekend was exciting, I had my dad fly in for it,” Lam-Feist said. “It is kind of weird knowing that was my last time playing at McClimon.”

Back in 2009, the Vancouver native earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors twice and finished third on the team in both shots (45) and assists (13).

The team finished third in the Big Ten, seven places higher than the 2008 team that struggled all season. Wisconsin fought all the way to the Sweet 16 that year and Lam-Feist remembers the excitement of the NCAA tournament run. 

“Every year there has been a defining moment. I think going back to my freshman year, not knowing college soccer yet, and the fact that we made it to the Sweet 16, I think that was one of my favorite moments,” Lam-Feist said. “We had nothing to lose because we were underdogs the whole season, so it was a really good feeling being able to go that far.”

Head Coach Paula Wilkins considers Lam-Feist and the rest of the senior class to be her first true recruiting class at UW and is honored to see their success and dedication to the Badgers’ program. 

“I told them before the game, [the seniors] are the recruits that bought into me, it was my first real recruiting class and I thought it was important for them to have ownership of the program,” Wilkins said after Friday’s game. “The way they played tonight, I think they showed that.”

On the field Lam-Feist is an offensive machine, looking to take shots and create scoring opportunities whenever possible. With the exception of a few shifts as a forward, she has played the attacking center role for Wisconsin’s midfield throughout her career.

Lam-Feist leads the Badgers in shots, racking up 45 already this season and had five during this weekend’s pair of conference wins.

“I define myself as an attacking player, who likes to take chances and score goals,” Lam-Feist said. “That is really my mindset when I’m on the field. I like to contribute attacking wise.”

Senior Joana Bielefeld has played in the midfield with Lam-Feist the past two seasons as the defensive-minded center. The two have progressed though all four years as Badgers together.

“[Lam-Feist] is just a really hard worker. She’s tricky, she does little things with the ball like nutmegs people and can laugh about it afterwards, so she is good with the ball and our chemistry is great,” Bielefeld said. “We both work for each other and I know she has my back and I have hers.”

Along with Bielefeld and seniors Lindsey Johnson and Lauren Gunderson, Lam-Feist serves as a captain. She believes she can best lead her team by setting the standard of what it means to work hard.

Lam-Feist also brings a professional tone to the team when needed, having played for both the under-17 and under-20 Canadian national teams.

“Her ability to dribble and connect passes is huge for us in our success and to develop as a player with a professional mentality,” Wilkins said. “Her ability to be professional and do the right things in terms of warm-ups and things like that has been very important for us.”

Highlighting Lam-Feist’s experiences representing her home country was the opportunity to play in the 2008 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile. She played in all three games for Canada and led the team in goals with two during the tournament.

Lam-Feist was just still a teenager when she traveled to Chile, and was the youngest member of the Canadian team at 17. 

“Representing your country is always an honor, and for me to do that on the international stage when I was 17 years old was an amazing experience,” Lam-Feist said. “I grew up a little bit because I was always traveling with that team as one of the younger players so I kind of got brought in with the older players.”

She also helped bring home the gold medal for Canada at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in 2008.

A mixture of curiosity and encouragement from teammate Paige Adams served as key in bringing her to Wisconsin. Adams was one of Lam-Feist’s teammates in Canada.

While going though the recruitment process, Lam-Feist said she first planned to visit several schools. After Adams, who had already committed to the Badgers, told her to add Wisconsin to the list, she arrived at what was then the unknown world of Madison and her decision was quickly over.

“Before I visited, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never really heard of Wisconsin to be honest, I think the campus, you just fall in love with it,” Lam-Feist said. “After I visited Wisconsin, I was going to visit a bunch of other schools, but I decided and I told my parents I didn’t want to look anywhere else, and Wisconsin is the school for me.”

When not on the soccer field, Lam-Feist is pursuing a double major in life science communication and sociology and can regularly be found at the farmers’ market, one of her favorite spots on campus.

While she doesn’t know exactly where this path will take her, Lam-Feist hopes to continue to play soccer in Canada, most likely for the Vancouver Whitecaps – her summer club team.

“I think after college, I plan to, at least as of now, play after college and pursue that a little bit and postpone reality for as long as I can,” Lam-Feist laughed. “That is the plan as of now – to continue playing after college.”

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