While she rarely leaves the confines of the 18-yard box, goalkeeper Sara Wojdelko’s presence is always felt across the field. After four years at Vanderbilt, Wojdelko has become a vocal leader who is still heard even when the rest of her team is on the attack.
“It is important at this level to stay engaged,” Wojdelko said. “There can be a moment in transition, and if our backline isn’t set up in a way to best defend that, then we could be opened up, and they [the opponent] could potentially have a chance to score.”
Finding her way home
Wojdelko tried several sports as a kid, but she naturally gravitated towards soccer. It was in her early years of playing that the nickname “Wojo” came about.
“My dad played football in college and they called him ‘Wojo,’” Wojdelko said. “So when there were multiple ‘Sara’s’ on the team, my dad identified me apart from the rest of them by calling me ‘Wojo.’”
Wojdelko got her start in goalkeeping around sixth grade when she played on an all-boys team, and an ankle injury prompted her coach to put her in net. After recovering, she stuck with the position and quickly climbed the youth soccer ladder.
“I wanted to push my limits, so I tried out for a new team, the Michigan Hawks,” Wojdelko said. “They were more competitive, and they’re more well-known around the country because they’re playing at the ECNL level.”
ECNL competition sharpened Wojdelko’s goalkeeping skills while also putting her talents on display for college coaches. This exposure allowed Wojdelko to focus her efforts on club soccer, as she only played high school soccer her freshman year.
The decision paid off, and Wojdelko fielded offers from a bevy of Division I schools. The goalie visited several, but Vanderbilt stood out, not only for its academics and soccer program but also for its community.
“I came on my visit, and the two girls that I stayed with were super welcoming and super open about answering questions,” Wojdelko said. “The difference between Vanderbilt and other schools that I visited was the team culture and the way that the team came together.”
Another difference Wojdelko noted was how teammates at Vanderbilt treated each other.
“At other schools, you see people competing for playing time and competing for these positions, but they’re not friends off the field — they’re kind of praying on each other’s downfall,” Wojdelko said. “At Vanderbilt, it wasn’t like that. People are happy when other people get a chance to play, and while it’s a competitive environment, everyone is still rooting for each other.”
Highs and lows
Since coming to Vanderbilt in 2021, Wojdelko has felt the highs and lows of that competitive environment, but she’s stayed loyal to her teammates through it all.
After sitting on the bench for her entire freshman season, Wojdelko made her career debut on Aug. 18, 2022, when she posted a complete-game shutout against Evansville. 2022 turned out to be a monumental year for both Wojdelko and Vanderbilt Soccer, as the Commodores grabbed unforgettable wins in both the SEC and NCAA tournaments, with Wojdelko holding down the fort.
In the SEC tournament, the Commodores upset No. 9 Arkansas thanks to a game-winning save by Wojdelko in the penalty shootout after regulation ended in a 1-1 draw. Vanderbilt fell to top-seeded Alabama in the next round, but not without a valiant final stand from Wodjelko that included five saves against the No. 3 team in the country.
After securing an at-large bid, Wojdelko pushed the Commodores to another upset victory over No. 25 Clemson in the NCAA Tournament. She stopped six shots en route to a 1-0 win — a game in which the Commodores were outshot by the Tigers 3-7.
“All those big wins against big teams where everyone thinks you’re the underdog and ‘[Vanderbilt’s] not supposed to win,’ those are definitely my favorite sports moments,” Wojdelko said.
What made those moments especially memorable for Wojdelko was the team around her.
“In the locker room, the team is super excited, and we all come together,” Wojdelko said. “Honestly, the celebration lasts for a week, if not longer, which is really exciting.”
Wojdelko split game time in 2022 with Kate Devine but ultimately lost the starting role to Devine in 2023 after a rough start to the season. A shining example of a team player, Wojdelko never wavered in her support of Devine.
“I was super happy for [Devine] and [was] rooting for her,” Wojdelko said. “It just all depends on the coaches and who they think would benefit the team the most.”
Wojdelko cites her rough start in 2023 as one of the hardest times in her career. For the first three games of the season, Wojdelko and Devine each played a half, but Wojdelko allowed two goals while Devine allowed none. Devine won the starting job, and Wojdelko only saw the field for eight minutes for the rest of the season.
“It was hard to continue to practice every day knowing that one performance was the reason that I’m not playing,” Wojdelko said. “It’s hard for me to separate playing and [being] off the field when thinking about my self-worth.”
But four years at Vanderbilt has helped her separate her on-field performances from her off-field self-esteem.
“That’s something that I feel has gotten better since being in the college game,” Wojdelko said. “We do so much film to actually learn from mistakes instead of letting them bring you down.”
A key contributor to Wojdelko’s development as both a player and a person has been the Commodores’ goalkeeper coach, Daniel O’Hare.
“Daniel [O’Hare] is fantastic. He’s easy to talk to, and we go through lots of film,” Wojdelko said. “There [are] very positive and negative things, but Daniel seems to always turn them into positive things.”
Looking ahead
The 2023 campaign was disappointing for the Commodores, as they missed out on both the SEC and NCAA tournaments. This time around, it’s personal for Wojdelko and Co.
“It’s been the fuel for why we want to make it and achieve big things because we didn’t get to do that last year, and it was really disappointing,” Wojdelko said. “It’s personal for the senior class, for my class, to make it that far and be successful because everyone has that winning mentality.”
Through seven games in 2024, the Commodores are undefeated and appear poised to make a run in both the SEC and NCAA tournaments. Wojdelko credits much of this success to head coach Darren Ambrose and the rest of his staff.
“Darren [Ambrose] is the only one out of the small coaching staff that is still here [after] my freshman year,” Wojdelko said. “The new perspectives that we got on defense, offense and in goal have been really beneficial to the team.”
New perspectives seem to be the key for Vanderbilt this season, as the offense has been firing on all cylinders after stalling toward the end of the 2023 season. Not only has the offense seen a revival, but Wojdelko has bounced back from a disappointing 2023 campaign with six clean sheets and a 92.3% save percentage through seven games.
Regardless, Wojdelko isn’t concerned with who is in net or on the field as long as the team succeeds.
“That’s a big thing on our team, even when people don’t get playing time,” Wojdelko said. “It’s that ‘we over me’ mentality where I’m happy about the success of the team over my own. I think that’s been a big part of my time here.”
The immaculate start to 2024 parallels the 2022 campaign when the Commodores also went undefeated through seven nonconference games. If the strong start is an indication of things to come for Vanderbilt, Wojdelko and Co. are well on their way to achieving big things this season.
