Completed Event: Women's Soccer versus #1 Stanford on December 5, 2025 , Loss , 0, to, 1
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Final
Women's Soccer
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vs #1 Stanford
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Q&A With Rising Senior Lizzy Raben
5/9/2016 1:48:00 PM | Women's Soccer
DURHAM, N.C.-- Duke rising senior Lizzy Raben stopped by recently to talk with GoDuke.com prior to heading home following final exams. Raben, who hails from Greenwood Village, Colo., has started 59-of-66 career contests at Duke on defense. She was named one of two captains for the 2016 campaign earlier this week.
GoDuke.com: When you found out you were selected captain, what did that mean to you?
Lizzy Raben: It is the biggest honor to be voted as captain or as a leader of this group. It is a really special group and I am excited. I think my class has already done a great job of leading this spring and other leaders have really stepped up. I know that it is not going to just be me [leading]. The leadership is going to come from a lot of other people. And with Christina [Gibbons] as a returning captain, it is going to be really great having her as my co-captain. She has a lot of experience and we have a really great relationship so I'm really excited to work with her.
GD: Do you plan on doing anything different in 2016 since being named co-captain along with Christina Gibbons?
LR: No, I think it is going to be a group effort. Everyone has a different role when it comes to leadership. All members of the team have different strengths and we have really seen that come out this spring. Everyone just being confident and comfortable in their leadership roles is going to be huge and I'm really excited to embrace mine and there are definitely going to be new aspects to it but I want to keep doing what I'm doing both as a player and as a leader on the team.
GD: Rate for us how the spring season was with this being your final one you will participate in?
LR: The spring has been amazing, honestly. If you look at it purely from a results standpoint, with the games that we have played, we may have not gotten the best results, but we are definitely playing some of the best soccer I have seen this team play. The training has been great. The coaches have been doing a great job of really challenging us and pushing us to get better technically and everyone has really stepped up to that. We have continued to get closer as a team. Everyone has been really mature and realizes that this is a new group from last year and we are ready to embrace the new identity of this team and incorporate the freshmen. Overall, it has been a really great spring. I have enjoyed it a lot. It makes me sad that this is my last spring.
GD: Looking back at this past season, both you and your brother, Sam, who is on the Wake Forest men's soccer team, made long runs in the NCAA Tournament. How exciting was that for you and your family?
LR: It was amazing. [Sam] had such an incredible year and I was so happy for him. He played a really big role in the success of that team and he really enjoyed it. That was really cool for me because he didn't get the recognition in high school as much so to see him get it in college was amazing. To be able to finish my games and then go check on how his games were going was very exciting. Obviously my parents and my parents and my sister were running around the country, from Winston-Salem to Durham and back. But that was just so exciting to have them there and to have Sam come to some of my games during the season and I got to see some of his. I get to learn a lot just by watching him play. We play the same position and he is really talented and I look up to him and I try to emulate some of the qualities he has on the field. But in terms of the tournament, we both had devastating exits from the tournaments and I know he was just as emotional about it as I was so we both got to lean on each other a little bit in that way.
GD: Since you two play the same position, do you and your brother ever help each other out or talk about ways to get better?
LR: Yeah, we will just talk about our experience with strikers and how to handle strikers with different styles. We are a little bit different stylistically. He is very conservative and not as loud as I might be and I like to use my voice a lot more on the field. But I definitely try to take aspects from his game and I know he watches me when he comes to my games and tells me what I could do better, which is always really helpful.
GD: What kinds of things have you been working on with your game in the spring?
LR: For me, I've be working on being comfortable stepping into the midfield and breaking pressure off the dribble. I think that is something that I need to continue to get better at and I will continue to work on it over the summer. Other than that, decision-making on the ball, deciding what to do given the situation and being able to technically execute it, whether that is playing an entrance ball in the forward sphere or being able to play a chip ball over the back line. Just being able to play different passes in different situations is very important.
GD: So how excited are you for the trip to China this summer?
LR: I am so excited! I have never been to the eastern hemisphere before. I have traveled a bit in Europe and I got to go to South Africa with my family two winter breaks ago. But I have never been to China. I have never been to Asia. I'm really excited to go, especially with this team which is so fun to travel with and to hang out with. I think it is going to be a really great bonding experience for whoever is able to go. I'm excited but I do not really know what to expect. We had a meeting where they told us some of the things to expect but otherwise I think it is going to be a lot of fun, especially the 14-hour flight and figuring out how to occupy ourselves during that time.
GD: What other plans do you have for the summer?
LR: After school ends, I'm going to be back in Colorado for a bit. My internship starts after China. After China I'm going to [Washington] D.C. and I am going to have an internship there and I will be playing with the Spirit, which I am really excited to do. We have a couple of other players playing there was well. I've heard great things about the players who trained there last year so I'm really excited to experience that.
GD: What kind of internship will you be working?
LR: I helped bring a startup publication called “The Rival” to campus this year at Duke and it is on nine other campuses. They asked me to work at their headquarters in D.C. this summer and take on a managerial role. I'll help expand the publication to other schools and I'll help manage a national team of writers to produce content over the summer and I'm really excited to do that. I'm staying with my uncle and aunt who live in D.C. and they have two small kids so I will be getting a lot of babysitting in which is great for them. My grandparents are also in D.C. so I am very excited to see family this summer as well.
GD: You are involved in some other things on campus. Let us know what all you are involved in.
LR: I've worked with The Rival this past year. I want to go into journalism so this has been a great taste of that: editing, writing and managing a bunch of writers. I helped direct All of the Above which is a theatrical production that features monologues written by women on campus about Duke life and issues of identity. I helped direct it this year and I acted in it the past two years. That has been amazing. Abby Pyne was supposed to act in it this year, but unfortunately was unable to due to a last minute illness. But it is a really cool show and I've met a lot of amazing women through it. I do work with Athlete Ally, which is an organization on campus that tries to end homophobia and transphobia in sports and that has been a really rewarding experience as well.
GD: You have one more season at Duke before graduating. What are you wanting to do following graduating?
LR: I'm definitely considering playing after this year, maybe internationally. I've seen many players above me go abroad and have amazing experiences so that is definitely something I am interested in doing immediately after school. Beyond that, I'd love to go into journalism. I'm not really sure what type yet, whether it would be sports journalism and broadcasting or more traditional news media. I'm trying to figure that out now and experiment to see what I like.
GoDuke.com: When you found out you were selected captain, what did that mean to you?
Lizzy Raben: It is the biggest honor to be voted as captain or as a leader of this group. It is a really special group and I am excited. I think my class has already done a great job of leading this spring and other leaders have really stepped up. I know that it is not going to just be me [leading]. The leadership is going to come from a lot of other people. And with Christina [Gibbons] as a returning captain, it is going to be really great having her as my co-captain. She has a lot of experience and we have a really great relationship so I'm really excited to work with her.
GD: Do you plan on doing anything different in 2016 since being named co-captain along with Christina Gibbons?
LR: No, I think it is going to be a group effort. Everyone has a different role when it comes to leadership. All members of the team have different strengths and we have really seen that come out this spring. Everyone just being confident and comfortable in their leadership roles is going to be huge and I'm really excited to embrace mine and there are definitely going to be new aspects to it but I want to keep doing what I'm doing both as a player and as a leader on the team.
GD: Rate for us how the spring season was with this being your final one you will participate in?
LR: The spring has been amazing, honestly. If you look at it purely from a results standpoint, with the games that we have played, we may have not gotten the best results, but we are definitely playing some of the best soccer I have seen this team play. The training has been great. The coaches have been doing a great job of really challenging us and pushing us to get better technically and everyone has really stepped up to that. We have continued to get closer as a team. Everyone has been really mature and realizes that this is a new group from last year and we are ready to embrace the new identity of this team and incorporate the freshmen. Overall, it has been a really great spring. I have enjoyed it a lot. It makes me sad that this is my last spring.
GD: Looking back at this past season, both you and your brother, Sam, who is on the Wake Forest men's soccer team, made long runs in the NCAA Tournament. How exciting was that for you and your family?
LR: It was amazing. [Sam] had such an incredible year and I was so happy for him. He played a really big role in the success of that team and he really enjoyed it. That was really cool for me because he didn't get the recognition in high school as much so to see him get it in college was amazing. To be able to finish my games and then go check on how his games were going was very exciting. Obviously my parents and my parents and my sister were running around the country, from Winston-Salem to Durham and back. But that was just so exciting to have them there and to have Sam come to some of my games during the season and I got to see some of his. I get to learn a lot just by watching him play. We play the same position and he is really talented and I look up to him and I try to emulate some of the qualities he has on the field. But in terms of the tournament, we both had devastating exits from the tournaments and I know he was just as emotional about it as I was so we both got to lean on each other a little bit in that way.
GD: Since you two play the same position, do you and your brother ever help each other out or talk about ways to get better?
LR: Yeah, we will just talk about our experience with strikers and how to handle strikers with different styles. We are a little bit different stylistically. He is very conservative and not as loud as I might be and I like to use my voice a lot more on the field. But I definitely try to take aspects from his game and I know he watches me when he comes to my games and tells me what I could do better, which is always really helpful.
GD: What kinds of things have you been working on with your game in the spring?
LR: For me, I've be working on being comfortable stepping into the midfield and breaking pressure off the dribble. I think that is something that I need to continue to get better at and I will continue to work on it over the summer. Other than that, decision-making on the ball, deciding what to do given the situation and being able to technically execute it, whether that is playing an entrance ball in the forward sphere or being able to play a chip ball over the back line. Just being able to play different passes in different situations is very important.
GD: So how excited are you for the trip to China this summer?
LR: I am so excited! I have never been to the eastern hemisphere before. I have traveled a bit in Europe and I got to go to South Africa with my family two winter breaks ago. But I have never been to China. I have never been to Asia. I'm really excited to go, especially with this team which is so fun to travel with and to hang out with. I think it is going to be a really great bonding experience for whoever is able to go. I'm excited but I do not really know what to expect. We had a meeting where they told us some of the things to expect but otherwise I think it is going to be a lot of fun, especially the 14-hour flight and figuring out how to occupy ourselves during that time.
GD: What other plans do you have for the summer?
LR: After school ends, I'm going to be back in Colorado for a bit. My internship starts after China. After China I'm going to [Washington] D.C. and I am going to have an internship there and I will be playing with the Spirit, which I am really excited to do. We have a couple of other players playing there was well. I've heard great things about the players who trained there last year so I'm really excited to experience that.
GD: What kind of internship will you be working?
LR: I helped bring a startup publication called “The Rival” to campus this year at Duke and it is on nine other campuses. They asked me to work at their headquarters in D.C. this summer and take on a managerial role. I'll help expand the publication to other schools and I'll help manage a national team of writers to produce content over the summer and I'm really excited to do that. I'm staying with my uncle and aunt who live in D.C. and they have two small kids so I will be getting a lot of babysitting in which is great for them. My grandparents are also in D.C. so I am very excited to see family this summer as well.
GD: You are involved in some other things on campus. Let us know what all you are involved in.
LR: I've worked with The Rival this past year. I want to go into journalism so this has been a great taste of that: editing, writing and managing a bunch of writers. I helped direct All of the Above which is a theatrical production that features monologues written by women on campus about Duke life and issues of identity. I helped direct it this year and I acted in it the past two years. That has been amazing. Abby Pyne was supposed to act in it this year, but unfortunately was unable to due to a last minute illness. But it is a really cool show and I've met a lot of amazing women through it. I do work with Athlete Ally, which is an organization on campus that tries to end homophobia and transphobia in sports and that has been a really rewarding experience as well.
GD: You have one more season at Duke before graduating. What are you wanting to do following graduating?
LR: I'm definitely considering playing after this year, maybe internationally. I've seen many players above me go abroad and have amazing experiences so that is definitely something I am interested in doing immediately after school. Beyond that, I'd love to go into journalism. I'm not really sure what type yet, whether it would be sports journalism and broadcasting or more traditional news media. I'm trying to figure that out now and experiment to see what I like.
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