UNLV soccer star long on talent

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006 | 7:55 a.m.

UNLV junior striker

Age: 19

Home: Lake Forest, Calif.

Height: 5 feet, 5 3/4 inches

Family: Mother, Cindy; father, Terence; brothers, Patrick (21) and Colin (7)

Resume: Led El Toro High to California Interscholastic Federation semifinals as a junior and was MVP of her team as a senior. Had five goals and an assist as a freshman at UNLV. Became a starter last season as a sophomore, collecting seven goals and seven assists.

Katie Carney has grown into much more than a poacher, lurking in front of the net for scrap goals, for the UNLV women's soccer team.

A year ago, Carney started her sophomore season at 5-feet-3. As the Rebels prepare for the start of their 2006 season Friday at a tournament in Pullman, Wash., she almost hits 5-6 on the tape measure.

Carney hopes that extra height helps her reach more looping passes to head into the back of the net.

"I think I've just been sleeping straighter," Carney said. "I know I've been drinking a lot of milk. Calcium. I'm a late bloomer, I don't know. I'm hoping to get one more inch.

"But I'm doing better in the air. Hopefully, I'll get some goals off crosses."

That extra dimension to her arsenal won't help foes sleep straighter. Carney, 19, had seven goals and seven assists in 2005, placing her third among Mountain West Conference scorers with 21 points.

She slammed in the game-winning goal in overtime of last season's league tournament finale that landed UNLV in the NCAA tournament.

And in the Rebels' lone exhibition game this summer against Dixie State, she repeated the feat by scoring the deciding goal in a 2-1 victory.

"I like the pressure," Carney said. "I like that the team knows that, 'Katie can finish in the crucial moments.' I get the ball more, having that type of (experience)."

Carney dragged a bag of balls out to a practice field nearly every morning this summer to perfect her various shots, including headers from corner kicks and cross passes.

"Even though she doesn't wear a captain's armband, she's definitely a captain for the girls," second-year Rebels coach Kat Mertz said of Carney. "She's out there leading. She's a good role model, and she's just fun to play with."

Carney hails from a rich sporting bloodline that stretches at least to Padraig Carney, her paternal grandfather who starred for a famous Gaelic football (which combines elements of rugby and soccer) side in Mayo, Ireland, in the 1950s. He was immortalized in a poem.

" Padraig Carney, directing the pace his gifted intuition, and fair distribution "

Inducted into the Gaelic Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2001, the Carney patriarch resides in Long Beach, Calif., with his wife. Their three sons all excelled at sports.

Padraig Carney's homes in Southern California and Ireland are sports museums, filled with framed photographs and articles devoted to the family's athletic exploits.

Cormac Carney was known for his sure hands as a tight end at UCLA in the early 1980s. Brian Carney played football at Air Force in the 1970s, and his son Jake is a senior defensive back at Notre Dame.

Terence Carney, Katie's father, played baseball and football in high school in Long Beach. He took up basketball as a senior, then earned a hoops scholarship to the University of the Pacific.

"Athletics were always stressed in the family," Katie Carney said. "It made you have that talent, that look. I'm obviously not the biggest player on the field, so it's just I know the game well. I see it and pick it up quickly."

She took to the game especially quickly at an early age. A year after picking up the sport in the second grade, she was excelling at the club level. From Under-12s to Under-18s, she played for the "West Coast" club team in Orange County.

Many of those former teammates will be in eastern Washington, as opponents, this weekend.

Allison Scurich, a junior defender at Washington State, will mark Carney on Friday afternoon. They talked to each other Monday night, when Scurich admitted it will be weird trying to contain her good friend.

"She's a great defender. She always pushed me, and I'd push her," Carney said. "She knows how I play, all my moves; so I'll have to work harder.

"But I think I can take her."

With gifted intuition and fair distribution.