Bright lights beating down into her eyes, Maya Hansen woke up in a white room, confused and scared. She quickly realized the day that had long kept her restless was finally here.
As the pain medication wore off, she became fully aware of her surroundings, realizing her ACL reconstruction surgery was successful — good news — but her journey back to college soccer was just starting.
If you would have asked the soccer forward that day that a year after the surgery she would be in Iowa City, wearing a black kit for the Hawkeye women’s soccer program, she would have brushed you right off. It wasn’t anywhere near the top of her mind.
But after transferring from South Dakota State, the decision coming in light of both her graduation and her injury, the Savage, Minnesota, native has found herself producing crucial minutes this season for a one-loss Hawkeye soccer team ranked 14th in the country.
After recording 44 total goals and 19 assists during her career as a Jackrabbit, Hansen’s five goals across a variety of roles this season has made her an invaluable addition to this program that is seeking a deep postseason run.
“Obviously, I had goals and aspirations and a vision for what I wanted my season to look like,” she said. “I wanted to be a key contributor. I wanted to be impactful. I wanted to be someone who my teammates were excited about when I was on the field.”
While Hansen has only started two games for Iowa this season, she is tied for second on the team for goals scored and has a shot-on-goal percentage of .550.
“I’ve just been trying to star in my role, whatever that looks like,” she said. “Game to game, that might be different, but I’m just controlling what I can. I know I can always control my attitude, my work rate, and my effort. Pouring all I can into these things, not worrying about things that are outside of my control or anything like that, is something I focus on.”
Teammate Sofia Bush reflected on what it’s like having players like Hansen come off of the sideline to produce good minutes.
“This whole team, every single player, is invaluable and brings so much to the table,” Bush said. “So just having that depth has been great this year.”
Along with her optimism, one of Hansen’s strengths is definitely her team-centered attitude, which motivates her sacrificing the touted starting role for anything to help the Hawkeyes win.
“Although those goals may have my name behind them, those are really team goals because my teammates have set me up for success on each of those,” she said. “They’re just putting the ball right where it needs to be.”
But Hansen’s role is still evolving, starting here and there for Iowa as her first game this season also marked her first in 11 months since ACL surgery. She called it a learning curve.
“There’s been a lot of growth this year, just getting used to the pace again, getting used to the physicality,” Hansen said. “Things like that have been a big adjustment, not only coming from a different team to a Big Ten team but just coming off an injury. That has been really big for me.”
With only one game left until the Big Ten Tournament, Hansen will look to continue her growth on the season.
Skill? Mindset? A little luck? Superstition? A little bit of everything? Regardless of what it is, Hansen starts every game the same way, which she will through the end. And a lot of it is just fun and focus at the end of the day.
“I never warm up with shin guards, and that I’ve done my whole college career,” she said. “If we have a 7:00 game, I’ll probably spend 30 minutes doing my hair [and listening to] my pump-up songs that get me in a good headspace. Then I just like hanging out with teammates in the locker room — it gets me in a good mood.”
Regardless of what role Hansen finds herself in on the pitch, there’s one ultimate goal in mind: Win the NCAA Championship.
“[That’s] a goal that I think is well within our realm this year,” Hansen said. “As the season progressed, thinking about some of those long-term goals, it’s been more exciting because this group is capable of so much.”