Muggsy Bogues, Earl Boykins and Spud Webb proved it in basketball. David Eckstein proved it in baseball. US Soccer’s Tiffany Millbrett even proved it. Now Syracuse soccer’s own Lauren Jentzen is proving it too: size doesn’t matter.

The sophomore forward has done a lot in her career. At Marshfield High School in Marshfield, Mass., she set school records for career goals and assists with 59 and 31, respectively. She was team captain her senior year, led her team to the Eastern Massachusetts title in 2001, was named to 11 all-star teams in her four-year tenure and won offensive player of the year three times.

She did this all standing at only 5 feet, 2 inches tall.

‘(Syracuse is) lucky to have her,’ said Fred Podbelski, her high school coach. ‘You couldn’t ask for a better player.’

Jentzen went though high school playing three sports – soccer, basketball and lacrosse – but her hard work in the former is what brought her to SU.

‘(Jentzen) was a leader,’ Podbelski said. ‘She was the first one on the field and the last one off the field. She was really the heart and soul of the team.’

Playing for the Orange has been a dream come true for Jentzen, who said it’s every player’s goal to get to the Division I level in college.

Being so short, however, how is Jentzen able to compete? SU head coach Patrick Farmer said it’s easy.

‘I wish we could can what she had,’ Farmer said. ‘She’s the feistiest, most aggressive, most in-your-face player that we have. She’s also the smallest player that we have. Maybe those two go together.’

Teammate Molly McManus agreed.

‘She’s such a hard worker,’ said McManus, who is also 5 feet 2 inches. ‘She’s got the best work ethic on the field.’

Not only does she have the work ethic, but Jentzen knows she needs it.

Jenzten’s feistiness has allowed her to burst onto the Syracuse soccer scene, assisting on a goal in her first game last year and scoring the team’s first goal of the 2005 season in a 3-1 win over Hartford on Aug. 28. That score was also the first of Jentzen’s SU career.

‘I’m really glad I got it out of the way in the first couple games,’ Jentzen said. ‘It was something I’d been thinking about since last year.

‘I feel a lot more comfortable and expect a lot more to come.’

‘Expect’ is the key word in that sentence, and according to Farmer, a word not used often last season.

‘She expects more of herself now,’ Farmer said. ‘She expects herself to score goals. She expects herself to win one-on-one battles. Last year she was sort of hoping to do this and hoping to do that.’

Farmer notices a lot of growth in his sophomore forward, and sees more in her future; mainly in the form of one of the team’s go-to scorers.

‘I think she’s somebody we hope scores five, six, eight goals this year,’ Farmer said. ‘If she gets done the year and hasn’t scored five, six, eight goals, I’ll be disappointed in our ability to get her in dangerous places.’

Published on September 8, 2005 at 12:00 pm