Recently, Megaphone reporter Julianna Truitt sat down with Lillyan Van Meter, who graduated in December 2024. She played soccer for over a decade, starting at just six years old. She gave everything to it—club teams, school teams, 6 a.m. practices, late-night drives, weekends spent on the road, and weekdays spent sore and tired. Four of those years were at Southwestern University, where she became a senior captain in her final year. However, she didn’t finish her final season on the field.
“It was October 15, during the Texas Lutheran University game—like five or six minutes in. I heard a crunch,” she said. “They wouldn’t let me play the rest of the game. The next morning I went in for X-rays—they told me it was fractured.” Lillyan had fractured her cuboid, tore the muscle off her calcaneus, and pulled the peroneal tendons.
She thought maybe she could come back on the field, but the timeline didn’t align. One doctor said two weeks, but a specialist said six. The problem was there were fewer than four weeks left in the season.
“So I was faced with a dilemma,” she said. “Do I go back and risk making it worse, or do I think about my health first? I chose my health.”
Her last season was over before it started.
Lillyan played as a consistent starter. She played center back—one of the most physically and mentally demanding positions on the field. She was vocal and tactical. She read the game well and organized the back line. As a captain, she wasn’t flashy, but she held teammates accountable, setting the tone on and off the field.
“I didn’t get over it for a long time,” she said. “But I was a senior captain. So you kind of need to put on a good face.”
‘Getting over it’ was not just about missing games—it was watching from the sidelines while others played in the spot she’d worked years to earn. “It was hard watching people come in and play while I couldn’t,” she said.
Still, she showed up. She went to every practice and stayed connected to the team. She didn’t play, but she didn’t disappear. Her teammate, Matti Penders (‘28), also injured similarly to Lillyan, said, “She supported the team really well. Some people stop showing up, but she didn’t. She brought energy.”
They were called “boot buddies”—same injury, same scooter, same early mornings on the bench together.
Looking back, Van Meter came in with a freshman class of 20—more than the number of returning players. It brought a new dynamic, and together they helped reshape the team’s identity. “We kind of were the team,” she said. “We all came in together and stuck together.”
That made sitting out even harder. This wasn’t just any group—it was the one she had helped build from the ground up.
Watching from the sidelines was tougher than she expected. As a captain, not being able to contribute on the field made every game feel distant.
“I think it shows something when you’re still there, even if you can’t play,” Van Meter said.
Her teammates noticed. “She was there. Present. Loud. That matters,” Penders said.
Van Meter didn’t get the ending she wanted. But she didn’t let it undo everything that came before.
Now she’s taking a break from the game. She’s working in real estate, focused on the financial aspect of it, handling mortgages. Soccer’s been the constant since Van Meter was six, and letting go isn’t easy. For now and for the foreseeable future, she’s figuring out who she is without it—and she’s okay with that.