Freshman Melody Jayroe finds success with Lady Flames soccer
- After playing soccer throughout grade school, Melody Jayroe is ranked 38th in the country as a freshman for the Lady Flames.
- Jayroe has won Big South Freshman of the Week twice during this season.
For the second time this season, Liberty freshman goalkeeper Melody Jayroe was selected to be the Big South Freshman of the Week after five consecutive Big South victories.
According to libertyflames.com, Jayroe has been posting a 0.64 goals against average, which ranks 38th in the country. She has also collected nearly 80 saves on the season.
Originally from Plano, Texas, Jayroe grew up in the city suburbs. Jayroe enjoyed drawing and playing with the other children in her neighborhood from sunup to sundown. She started to play soccer in a recreational league around seven years of age.
Once she started playing, she couldn’t stop. Jayroe played soccer from elementary through high school, then her talents brought her to play at the collegiate level.
“Playing high school soccer, it was more relaxing and just a fun experience and it wasn’t too competitive, while club soccer was more the competitive side,” Jayroe said. “I would just train all day and then go home and study and do the same thing the next day.”
As she continued through high school, Jayroe found herself faced with the question of which college she would attend. Living in Texas, many of the colleges she considered were in-state, except for Liberty University.
“The environment was totally different from all of the other colleges,” Jayroe said. “As I went through my recruiting process I visited a lot of colleges and Liberty just had this incredible family feeling, and the campus is just gorgeous.”
Because of that friendly atmosphere, Jayroe chose to attend Liberty. The transition has been good, and she has enjoyed the looser class schedule and extra time to study.
Her transition onto the soccer team has been easy as well.
“She’s very well ingrained within the team and has made good friendships both within the team and within her class,” women’s soccer head coach Lang Wedemeyer said.
In her free time, Jayroe enjoys relaxing with friends and spending time outdoors and being around Liberty’s campus.
Athletically, Jayroe hopes she and the women’s soccer team will go further than ever before into the Big South playoffs. Her main goal in her soccer career is to do her best and stay strong as a player. The Big South conference has noticed her, too, and named her Freshman of the Week twice.
“I was on Twitter and I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so cool,’” Jayroe said. “It felt really nice to be rewarded for my hard work.”
Wedemeyer said Jayroe’s nominations were a “well-deserved honor.”
Being the Big South Freshman of the Week hasn’t been Jayroe’s only surprise this season. When she arrived at Liberty, she wasn’t expecting a starting position as goalkeeper.
“She has done a good job of taking over the reins in goal for us,” Wedemeyer said. “We have a player that came in as a freshman with the idea that she was going to be backup on goalkeeper and was very suddenly thrown into a starting role and has really stepped up. She exudes this calmness and confidence on the field that really boosts the whole team.”
Wedemeyer said he is already preparing Jayroe and his team for the quarterfinals game Friday, Oct. 27th.
“She’s been very consistent, and we hope to help her maintain that through the rest of the season and to help her evaluate what her true potential is,” Wedemeyer said.