UW-Whitewater Warhawk Gianna Zamborini is a freshman on the women’s soccer team and has made a remarkable impact on the program. All the way from Louisville, Kentucky, Zamborini entered the Whitewater campus with a passion for soccer. Throughout her early career here, she has played in 15 games, aimed 15 shots, scored 4 goals, and accomplished 1 assist.
Q: Why is playing soccer so important to you?
A: Probably because I’ve been playing my whole life and I’ve dedicated so much time and money to sport and just being able to play my last few years with a body that I can play sports with. So I wanted to use every bit of time to play.
Q: What does being a Warhawk mean to you?
A: I guess it means working really hard and fighting for your team. It’s important to put in all the effort that you can and make sure you’re trying your best all the time.
Q: How was the transition from high school soccer to college soccer?
A: Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. I actually feel like it’s kind of similar to high school, just at a higher level, and a little more intense. And yeah, honestly, it wasn’t that different.
Q: What lessons have you learned from soccer on and off the field?
A: On the field, just trying to stay positive because as soon as you make a mistake and you get down on yourself and you think about it too much like it’s just you play worse and it’s not good. It’s not good for the team to just be negative on the field. So I’ve learned that a lot this past month or two. On the field, it’s important to just grow relationships with the people on your team because it makes it easier to play with them and be like a successful team if you have a stronger bond with them, in and out of soccer.
Q: What, if any, struggles have you faced by being a freshman on the team?
A: Probably just not having a strong relationship with everyone coming in this year. And just that trust isn’t fully there yet because I didn’t really know them. And it was just hard to make relationships a little bit at the beginning because we were having to deal with this big transition away from home, and that was probably the hardest part.
Q: What are the team’s goals as you start to approach the end of the season?
A: Get as many wins as we can and as many more goals as we can. And just be more positive for sure, because that helps. And honestly, just getting better as a team.
Looking ahead, the team will be facing UW-Stout, Oct. 21, followed by Illinois Institute of Technology Oct. 24. With the season coming to an end, the final game of the regular season will be against UW-River Falls, hosted at home Oct. 28.
