Copy by Ricky Davis (Sports Information Student Intern)

Lynn Williams, former Pepperdine women's soccer player, is back on campus working as a volunteer assistant with the Waves during their spring practice season.

For the past year, Williams has been playing soccer professionally, for the Western New York Flash, out of Rochester, New York. While with the team for her first season, Williams scored four goals, which was good for a tie for the team lead.

"I love how high the competition level is," Williams said. "There are players that I have grown up watching, and I get the chance to step on the field with them and play against them." When asked about getting drafted, Williams said that it was "really cool to be drafted as the sixth pick in the first round."

Williams is back on campus helping with the offseason training for the Waves. She originally came back because she needed a place to train for the upcoming season and that head coach Tim Ward was more than willing to have her back. She also came back see what coaching is like.

"I also wanted to use this opportunity kind of like an internship," Williams said. "I wanted to see the side other side of soccer as something I would want to do after my professional career is done."

A big area that she is helping the team with is leadership. Williams stated that, "Being a leader is hard, you have to figure out how to lead the team, but not show the team that you think that they are better than them." She wants to show the girls on the team that being a leader isn't always about being in charge, but more so about pushing your teammates to all compete at the highest level possible.

Williams says that being a coach to the girls that she played with just two seasons ago is, "a little different, because even though we are close friends, they still respect that I am here to help them, and they listen to what I have to say about their games. They know that I am going through a learning curve as well, so we are all getting better together."

Williams is also coming off of a knee surgery, and while here at Pepperdine, is working with the athletic training staff to get her back on the pitch as soon as possible.

"I think that Pepperdine has the best athletic training staff that I have ever worked with," Williams said.

Williams will be on campus until spring break. The preseason for the Flash beings March 14^th, so she needs to be able to get back to Western New York to get ready for this upcoming season.