SO GOOD: Sophia Lis boots the ball in a game last season during her junior campaign for the Lehigh University women’s soccer team. Former Princeton High standout Lis is primed for a big senior season for the Mountain Hawks who kick off their 2025 campaign by playing at Maryland on August 14. Forward Lis tallied six goals and five assists in 52 games over the first three years of her Lehigh career. (Photo provided courtesy of Lehigh Athletics)
By Bill Alden
In the fall of 2021, Sophia Lis enjoyed a memorable senior season for the Princeton High girls’ soccer team, scoring a program-record 38 goals as the Tigers went 21-3 on the way to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Group 3 state final.
Going on to join the Lehigh University women’s soccer team, Lis is looking to produce another special finale as she starts her senior season with the Mountain Hawks when they play at Maryland n August 14 in their 2025 opener.
“I am very excited for senior year, I definitely have more perspective going in from that experience of three years under my belt,” said 6’1 forward Lis, who has tallied six goals and five assists in 52 games so far in her Lehigh career. “I do have high hopes for my team this year; I think we can do great things.”
Although the Mountain Hawks are coming off a tough 3-9-5 season in 2024, Lis is confident the squad can get on the winning track this fall.
“Something that I love about the Patriot League is the fact that there is not a clear winner every year, you really have to work for your wins,” said Lis.
“You have to go into each one having the mentality that it is going to go your way and you are going to give it your all on the field. The Patriot League is definitely up in the air so we are going to give it our best shot this year.”
Getting on the field as a freshman in the fall of 2022 was an eye-opening experience for Lis.
“Naturally the first thing that comes to mind is the physical aspect of the game,” said Lis, reflecting on her debut campaign. “You go into your freshman year a little bit scrawny and you get thrown right into the swing of things. That is how you learn the best. You learn how to best position yourself on tackles and how to use your speed carefully so you are not wasting too much energy. But you are also being proactive, being able to help your team out where you can. Adjusting physically was a big thing for me. It was lifting more.”
Lis produced a big highlight when she scored her first college goal against Siena on September 8.
“I was so excited,” recalled Lis. “It was who do I hug first and all of the feelings. I can’t say that it has changed for any goal after that. It is always an exciting time.”
As Lis went through her freshman season, she was buoyed by her teammates.
“They were so supportive, no matter if I had a good game or a bad game,” said Lis. “At the end of the day, we were with each other the whole season; just building each other up and continuing to be positive to help me feel more comfortable and making me feel that I can have more of a positive impact. I really leaned on my team. I think that is what makes being part of a team so great. There are good and bad days. Whether you have a great goal or hit it right at the keeper, you support each other. They say brush it off, look forward to the next one, look at what you have done already so far. I think that positive communication goes a long way.”
Playing Princeton at Roberts Stadium that October was a positive experience.
“It was so great, friends and family were 100 percent there,” said Lis, whose older sisters, Taylor and Devon, were also PHS standouts and D-I college athletes with Taylor playing for the Cornell women’s lacrosse team and Devon competing for the Georgetown women’s soccer program. “Some of my old teammates from Princeton High were there, I think coach [Dave] Kosa was there. My extended family was there, my aunt and my cousins. Playing those games, you just have to look at them and smile at the experience that it is. You are playing in your home town and all you want to do is represent yourself and your team as best as possible and really just enjoy the experience and take it all in. Going to those stadiums is always an exciting time and something that I am so grateful for is that my teams play some of the teams that Taylor and Devon played.”
Heading into this fall, Lis is looking to bring the Lehigh team together.
“I think now going into my senior year, I am feeling like I have seen a lot of things before,” said Lis. “I know how to best manage my time. My goal is to make everyone on the team feel as comfortable as possible so that we can play well and perform well together. I have grown a lot more in the role that I am playing, just feeling more confident in my voice and being a leader on the team.”
Over the summer, Lis did an internship for a bank in New York City and competed for the New York Athletic Club’s team in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL).
“I feel like I really jibed with the coaches well,” said Lis, who has previously played for Real Central Jersey in the WPSL. “Living in the city, it would have been impossible to be able to make practices and games with Real Central Jersey. But with this new team, every girl there is also a college athlete or used to be. They just love playing the game, it was getting to know each other on and off the field. I had a great experience this summer working with them. Playing in the city was also very cool, it is something I had been wanting to do for a while.”
The combination of playing for the NYAC squad and fitting in workouts had Lis in good condition as she looked ahead to starting preseason training with Lehigh on August 1.
“Practices were two times a week and then it was two games a weekend, one on Saturday and one Sunday,” said Lis. “I would usually run in the morning. There is also a nice lifting facility in my gym in my apartment that I am living in. There was definitely ways to keep in shape.”
Coming off the disappointing 2024 season, Lis and her teammates know they need to be in tip-top shape.
“Things that we took away was that fitness is something we really prioritized in the spring,” said Lis. “We really wanted focus on fitness so that we can use our time in August preparing for this coming season to be technical and focused on shooting well so we can come back from being a goal down or just get ahead early.”
In addition to focusing on fitness and honing technical skills, Lis believes Mountain Hawks need to apply a key lesson she learned from her PHS experience to produce a winning campaign.
“My goals for this year are to make sure that the team is as collaborative as possible,” said Lis. “Something that I took away from Princeton High and being a captain there was that teams tend to perform better when they trust each other and when they are really bonding off the field. The players understand their purpose and the impact that they have on the team. I think we need to be setting that stage early on and using August to prepare us as much as possible just to give it our all. The season does fly by so quickly, by November we will be done. It is just working as hard as possible.”