“The biggest reason I went to this team is I loved how close it was to home. Rockford is only an hour away from Mendota.””

MENDOTA – When contestants of the Mendota Sweet Corn Pageant are getting ready for the annual event, they are usually waiting for the summer to get over so they can go to college or are working shifts around their pageant schedule.

Naitzy Garcia, a 2023 Mendota High School graduate and the 2023 Sweet Corn Festival Queen, wasn’t just doing her hair and makeup during the pageant. She was playing preseason games as part of the Rock Valley College women’s soccer team around pageant duties.

Just like the pageant paid off, Garcia’s freshman campaign was a success as the Golden Eagles were 16-4-3, were NJCAA Division II Region IV champions, Midwest District champions, and qualified for the NJCAA Division II National Tournament in November in Tucson, Ariz.

“The biggest reason I went to this team is I loved how close it was to home. Rockford is only an hour away from Mendota,” Garcia said. “I’m very family oriented so it was important to me that I didn’t have to catch a flight to see my family. I heard great things about the program and the school. The women’s soccer team was new to Division II, so I knew since they were able to transfer up a division last year, this was their second season in DII, that there were really big things happening in the program.

“It’s truly an amazing program with a lot of great people. All of the girls, collectively, are so unbelievably talented. It was amazing for me to see how many people truly love soccer the way I do and are dedicated to it just as much as I am. Putting all the talent together made us the powerhouse we were this season.”

This fall was the second DII season for the Golden Eagles, which makes the national tournament appearance the first for the squad in DII, but second in program history as RVC went to the Division III National Tournament in 2015.

The 16 wins was the first time the Golden Eales had won more than 10 games since 2019.

For Garcia, she led the RVC goalkeepers with 20 match starts and racked up 1,281 minutes and 66 saves with a .767 save percent.

“It was an experience. A lot of us came from high schools where we were the star players. We were surrounded by players who went out for soccer just to have a sport,” Garcia said. “We come to Rock Valley and we’re grouped with so many talented girls that it’s kind of like a weight is lifted off of your shoulders because the pressure isn’t all on one player.

“It was kind of hard toward the beginning of the season. You could tell that girls were still trying to do everything by themselves. Once we learned the talent level of everyone on the team and that no one was really doing anything by themselves, we started to work together and that’s how we were able to form team chemistry.”

At the biggest tournament of the year, RVC lost in two games as the Golden Eagles fell to #2-seeded Northwest Mississippi Community College, 2-0, and #7 Johnson County Community College, 4-0.

Garcia was on the sideline but couldn’t play in Arizona because she was hurt.

With the experience of making the tournament, Garcia said she can’t wait for next season as the 17 freshmen are ready for an opportunity to win the championship instead of just being there.

“There was a lot of adversity for us this season and a lot of obstacles that we came across, but the girls on the field really did their part at the national tournament,” Garcia said. “I feel like we know we’ll be there next year because that is what we’re going to work for. Our coach Kevan Watkins says, ‘It’s not a goal anymore, it’s an expectation.’

“We know now what we have to work for and what we have coming for us because this was the first time that even our coach had been to a national tournament. We’re ready for next year.

“It’s cool to say we were regional champions and that we made it to the national tournament. All of the fall sports at RVC made it to the national tournament this year, which is really cool. The women’s and men’s soccer teams and the volleyball team all made it to national tournaments. There has been a lot of celebrating here.

“I won’t forget any of these memories.”