Griswold leads at Butler

Quickness, experience and the capacity to learn have enabled soccer standout Katie Griswold of Canfield to pick up at Butler University this season where she left off at Cardinal Mooney High last year.

Griswold, Mooney’s all-time career leading scoring leader with 106 goals, now has become the leading scorer for the Butler University women’s soccer team this season as a 5-foot-8 freshman forward.

Through 10 games, seven as a starter, she has eight points on three goals and two assists as the Bulldogs have compiled a 4-6 record.

Coincidentally, Griswold’s senior Mooney teammate last year, Ashley Cuba, also has become the leading scorer of a Division I college program this year as a freshman at Pittsburgh.

Cuba has 15 points on six goals and three assists to lead the Panthers to a 5-2-1 record.

Griswold scored two of her three goals in Butler’s 3-1 win at Indiana State on Sept. 13, and made her team’s only goal in a 2-1 loss to Louisville at home last Sunday, giving the Bulldogs needed offensive punch to offset an up-and-down season start.

Butler will seek its fifth win today at home against Illinois State at 2:30 p.m.

Griswold said that her speed and quickness help her to score goals because she is able “to get behind the defense on a one-on-one situation so that I can get a step ahead of the defender. If you get in the clear, there is a good chance that you can get a pass from someone.”

She said she is one of three forwards who swing back and forth to try to get into the open in front of the opponent’s net to take a pass and try to score.

“There are three of us on top and we can of rotate around in the middle and outside. We have certain runs that we look for when certain players have the ball,” she said. But, “It’s hard to have plays in soccer. You kind of know where certain people make their runs.”

Griswold, a first-team all-state pick last year, said she arrived at Butler in great physical condition, which also has helped her to a strong start.

“I practiced all summer. We had a workout that we had to do every day. They gave us a regimen to do every day. I practiced at home,” said Griswold, who also credits her years of experience playing soccer for club teams as well as high school for her continued success. “I was playing soccer since I was four. I have always played soccer every year.”

But she said she continues to learn and admits that she has plenty to learn.

“I have learned more technically. I have learned about moves and where to go on the field,” she pointed out. But, “I sense that I still have a lot to learn. You learn more and more about soccer every day that you practice and every game that you play. We learn from each other.”

She believes the team is getting better after losing three of its first four games.

“Our team is improving a lot. There were a couple of things we had to fix in the beginning of the season. That was the hardest thing because we were playing harder teams,” she explained.

Griswold will be coming home next month when Butler plays at Youngstown State Oct. 18 at 1 p.m.

“I am looking forward to that. My family and friends will be there,” she said. “I think we had a game or practice there once in high school, but nothing big.”

The daughter of Gary and Maureen Griswold of Canfield, Katie is majoring in engineering and is considering a career in electrical, mechanical or biomedical engineering.

“I always wanted to be an engineer. I always have been good in math, my favorite subject,” she said. “I like to build things and put things together. The family comes to me if they ever need something fixed around the house.”

She has an older sister, Jessica, a senior at Duquesne majoring in pharmacy, and a younger brother, Andrew, 11.

At Mooney, Griswold’s coaches were Alex Simon, Joe DeMay and Jason Keller.

XJohn Kovach covers college athletics for The Vindicator. E-mail him at kovach@vindy.com.