De Lima, Schwartz Making Instant Impact for Bears
10/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
**This story was featured in Saturday's football game program vs. Kansas.**
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
With his 2016 signing class seemingly in place with eight incoming freshmen, Paul Jobson quietly added two more pieces during the spring signing period.
Signing exactly a week apart, junior college All-American midfielder Aline De Lima from Monroe (N.Y.) College and All-Southland Conference defender Caitlin Schwartz from Sam Houston State added depth and experience to a team brimming with youth.
A native of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the 5-foot-3 De Lima scored 33 goals in 34 games in stops at Northwest (Wyoming) College and Monroe.
"We lost a special player in Bri Campos," Jobson said of the two-time All-Big 12 forward, "and we brought in Aline hoping maybe she could fill the gap a little bit."
Between the transition to major college soccer and a preseason injury, De Lima had little to no impact until notching a pair of goals in a 7-0 win over Jackson State and then blasting a golden goal from 25 yards out in a 2-1 overtime win at Oklahoma State.
"The transition for her has been a little bit difficult, and then she's had a little bit of an injury and just coming into a new environment," Jobson said. "But, Aline's starting to catching up really well and she's starting to feel really, really healthy. And I think we've seen through the Jackson State game and her game at Oklahoma State what she's actually capable of.
"It's a big part of what we need in our game right now, just for depth purposes and the special things she brings to the game in general."
Before coming to Baylor, De Lima scored 10 goals in 17 games in earning 2014 conference Freshman of the Year honors at Northwest College. As a sophomore at Monroe College, she tailed 23 goals and six assists, notched seven game-winners and was named an NSCAA first-team All-American.
"My first two years were great, and now I have the opportunity to come here and continue my soccer career and my studies," she said. "The moment I came here on the visit, I felt like it was going to be my place and my next family, and I felt so good about it. I just love the philosophy we have here."
After sitting out both preseason exhibitions and five of the first nine regular-season games, De Lima showed her scoring potential with the two goals against Jackson State and the game-winner at Oklahoma State.
In the sixth minute of the first overtime period at OSU, De Lima got a "second ball and I took the touch and I knew I was going to shoot it," she said.
"It was amazing, a great experience for me to score that goal in that moment," she said. "I don't know how to express that, because in the moment of my celebration I had no idea what I did. I was feeling so good about that. The work for the team was great as well, and I scored because of that."
Being from Brazil, De Lima "plays a whole different style than what we're used to," said sophomore forward Lauren Piercy. "But her in the OSU game was so critical. She kept the ball to our feet instead of just over-hitting."
It wasn't as circuitous a route for Schwartz, a 5-9 junior from San Antonio, Texas. While she was on Baylor's recruiting radar and "always wanted to be a Baylor Bear," Schwartz started all 40 games in two seasons at Sam Houston State and earned first-team All-Southland Conference honors last year.
"I know as a player, and even in the classroom, I just want to push myself and do as best as I can," she said. "If I feel like I'm not getting challenged enough, then I just want to branch out. That's kind of what I wanted to do. I always wanted to come be a Baylor Bear. I tried at the beginning of my freshman year, and then I decided to go to Sam to get more experience. Then, I just came back here, and I knew it was God's plan."
Jobson says Schwartz is "fitting really, really well into what we're doing here." Through the first 13 games, Baylor's defense ranked second in the Big 12 and 21st nationally, giving up just eight goals (.595 goals-against average).
"She's putting in some great minutes and doing some really great things for us," Jobson said.
A center midfielder most of her life, Schwartz switched to center back at Sam Houston, was recruited to play the defensive sweeper position at Baylor and then moved back to center mid when Previous Akanyirige got hurt.
That's where Schwartz was for the conference opener against Texas, when she took a pass from Sarah King and rifled in a strike from eight yards out from the right side of the box for the equaling goal in a 1-1 tie with the Longhorns.
"I just remember after I scored, I was like, `I didn't do that, I didn't just do that, I scored,''' said Schwartz, who has scored one goal in each of her three collegiate seasons. "I was really excited, but I didn't really celebrate that much because it was 1-1 and we had to score another one."
The Bears close out the regular season with home games next weekend, hosting Iowa State at 7 p.m. Friday (Oct. 21) and Kansas at 1 p.m. Sunday (Oct. 23).
