Emily Lieber, a sophomore on the Cal Poly women's soccer team, has found a way to thrive on the pitch while maintaining a 4.0 GPA as an aerospace engineering major.
Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics
Emily Lieber — A Star On and Off the Pitch
2/27/2024 3:15:00 PM | Women's Soccer
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By: Emmy Scherer, Cal Poly Athletics
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — On a sunny day in El Dorado Hills, California, a curious fourth grader named Emily Lieber trudged her way through the halls to William Brooks Elementary School's library along with the rest of her class. She had been dreading this moment. Today, all the fourth graders had to read non-fiction books, but Emily only enjoyed reading fantasy books.
Her teacher, Mrs. Diaz, insisted that Emily give non-fiction books one more shot and led her over to the library's astronomy section. Emily hesitated a bit, but her curiosity got the best of her, and she picked up a book about methods for searching for extraterrestrial life.
From that point on, Emily was hooked on the stars.
From a young age, Emily Lieber knew
she wanted to shoot for the stars on and
off the pitch. Her dream is to work for NASA.At the time, Emily hadn't yet considered what she wanted to do when she was older – all she knew was that she was interested in soccer. Her parents placed her on her local youth soccer team after her older brother had joined, and she's loved it ever since. Her future job, though, whether that be soccer or something entirely different, hadn't really been at the forefront of her mind. She was young, after all.
However, in that moment, scouring through the books she found in the library, it had been decided. Astronomer it was.
But, astronomers can play soccer, too, right?
Book after book, Emily became increasingly fascinated with the stars. By the time Emily reached the fifth grade, she had read through all of her elementary school's astronomy books. Years later, when high school finally came about, Emily decided to enroll in a couple of astronomy classes at her local community college to test whether or not her interest was the real deal. During one of her classes, the teacher showed the students a night sky simulation that allowed them to explore different galaxies and check distances between astronomical bodies. When she came home from school that same day and spent hours on her parents' old computer attempting to download the very same program, she knew she was in it for the long run. She couldn't get enough – the more she learned about the stars, the more she loved them, and her love for the stars soon turned into a passion for aerospace engineering.
Emily's love for soccer never faded, though, and she continued to pursue the sport on multiple fronts. She played on Oak Ridge High School's varsity team all four years, serving as team captain for two. She excelled at soccer; her school's varsity team won the 2021-2022 CIF Northern California DI Championships after Emily tied up the score in the second half and won the game with a penalty kick. In addition, she was the captain of her club soccer team, San Juan 04 ENCL, for all four years she was a member. The sport was integral to who she was; she knew she didn't want to give that up.
So be it; her goal would be both, as it always has been.
When it came time for discussions of college, it was important that the school she chose would allow her to do precisely that. She was doubtful that she could find a school that was the right fit, but a new door opened when Cal Poly women's soccer head coach Alex Crozier came to her club team's game to scout her.
"We had identified her early on. There are only a handful of players like that," Crozier said.Emily Lieber has excelled on and off the field during her time as
a Mustang, earning Big West All-Freshman Team honors in 2022
while maintaining a 4.0 GPA in the classroom.
This was it – her shot to continue both her passions. It wasn't an immediate commitment when she got the offer from Cal Poly because, as with everything, big decisions need a slideshow presentation to map out every possibility. It didn't take long, though. There was a clear decision in the slides.
"Cal Poly was the obvious answer," Emily said.
A few years later, Emily now wakes up bright and early nearly every morning and heads to Cal Poly's Doerr Family Field for practice. Immediately after, she walks to the other side of campus to attend her engineering classes for the day, scheduled purposefully to end around 3 p.m. to allow time to do homework in the evenings. The sophomore is currently pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering and a minor in astronomy, so there's a fair share of work to do outside of class.
"I cannot procrastinate. Like that has been eliminated from my life," she said.
She doesn't. She wasted no time in college, earning Big West Offensive Player of the Week and Big West Freshman of the Week during the second week of her freshman season. In just two seasons with the Mustangs, Emily has started in 39 matches and scored the fourth-quickest goal to open a match in program history this past fall.
On top of that, she's a member of Cal Poly's CubeSat Laboratory, a club on campus that focuses on space research with miniature satellites. Her team plans to assist with two scheduled space launches next fall.
All not to mention, Emily has a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Emily is a member of Cal Poly's CubeSat
Laboratory, a club on campus that focuses
on space research with miniature satellites."It's awesome. I feel really proud of myself because I could fit it all in," Emily said.
Proud, however, is not an adjective that describes Emily; her humility shines through most prominently. She emphasizes the necessity of teamwork, both in engineering and soccer, to succeed. She also attributes her soccer community, church group, and closest friends to helping her navigate her college years, and said that college has helped her discover she's a "huge people person."
Despite her busy schedule, she ensures she has a lively and fulfilling social life. She makes sure to spend quality time with her friends each week, whether that be watching movies or board game nights. She never lost interest in reading, and she loves to read sci-fi and fantasy books in her free time.
"Free time?" she asked jokingly, "I'm just kidding."
She also makes sure to frequent the health and wellbeing resources provided by the Cal Poly Athletics training staff, noting the use of the Normatec and ice bath, in particular, to help her recover.
"You look at Emily and all she's doing, and you think, well, it just comes easy to her," Crozier said, "... I don't think there's anything stopping her."
Crozier said that the team has a weekly training session he calls "Top Gun," and to keep things fun, he's given each player a call sign just like the movie. Emily's is "Murph," named after the scientist in "Interstellar," her favorite movie.
"I think she's Murph. Plain and simple," Crozier said.
Emily's dream is to work for NASA in the future as an aerospace engineer, and she hopes to travel and start a family after kickstarting her career.
"I don't know where I'll end up, "she said. "... There are a lot of unknowns, but I'm OK with seeing where it takes me."
For now, she plans to pursue her passions, have a little fun when she can, and above all else, shoot for the stars.
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