Junior Ally Ramos has been the starting goalie for women’s soccer every season since her first year, despite dealing with injuries and obstacles.

Since her first year, Ramos has been a staple on the backline of the Catamounts’ defense.

“I would say the biggest element of my college career has been resiliency,” Ramos said. “My sophomore year, I broke my hand the game before conference games started so that put me out for the rest of the season.”

Ramos, a member of the 2012 America East All-Rookie Team, was able to bounce back to reclaim her starting role and return to form one season later.

This isn’t all the adversity Ramos has faced.

Last year Ramos had to deal with a more personal matter when her father died.

Ramos’ ability to deal with all of the challenges that have been thrown at her has shaped her into the leader she is today ,head coach Kristi Lefebvre said.

“She has had to battle through a lot of adversity,” Lefebvre said. “Coupled with her playing experience, she has learned how to handle herself in tough situations. For the future players coming through, she is definitely someone they can look up to.”

Despite dealing with a major hand injury, several more minor injuries early in her career and her father’s death, Ramos has remained strong through the years and has performed well in the classroom and on the soccer field.

Last season, Ramos was named to the 2014 America East Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll.

Through her first three seasons, Ramos has played in 39 games and has a career 1.7 goals against average, according to UVM athletics.

In her time at UVM, Ramos has played over 3,000 minutes, according to UVM athletics.

Junior Nikki McFarland played with Ramos prior to coming to UVM, when they played club soccer together.

Along with Lefebvre, McFarland was also quick to peg Ramos as the leader of the team.

“Ally is our leader, she is definitely someone we look up to,” McFarland said. “She is the number one goalie; she saves us every game.”

Although Ramos has developed into a leader on the team, Lefebvre said it didn’t happen over night.

“When she first got here, she would admittedly cut corners on little things, like not warming up as well as she could which led to some silly injuries,” Lefebvre said.

“Now we start to see her take those things more seriously. She is also talking a lot more, and even off the field people feel very comfortable talking to her.”

Despite a somewhat disappointing season for the team last year, Ramos said she has just one goal in mind for the team this year: a conference championship.

Ramos and the Cats next game is this afternoon at Siena College at 4 p.m.