Sometimes it pays to be in the right spot at the right time.
In a nutshell, that's how the Morehead State soccer team landed senior Texas twins Kelsey and
Kristi Gomez in the first place.
"We just happened to stumble across them at a recruiting event," Eagles Coach
Warren Lipka said. "We – Jeremy Groves, who's now at Murray State – we were down there in Orlando (Fla.) during this big tournament they have over the Christmas holidays, and he just was walking by a field and saw that the Houston team was playing and decided to watch a little bit. And picked these two out."
Lipka figured it was a long shot to get twins to come to Morehead all the way from the Houston suburb of Katy, but was pleasantly surprised when they committed.
"We had never even heard of Morehead, and I remember my mom (Cindy Bond) saying 'you're going to have to go there and you're going to do your visit,'" recalled Kristi, who is a defender. "And I'm like, 'Mom, I'm not going to go to school in Kentucky.' But we both knew we wanted to go play away and get out of Texas, and I think Morehead was the only school out of all the schools that recruited us that recruited us both together."
Kelsey, who moved from defender to attacker this season, said what attracted her most to MSU was how the team welcomed her and her sister when they made their official visit.
"I'd been on other recruiting visits and I met with the team and they seemed kind of stand-offish. They didn't take much personal interest in us," Kelsey said. "And then when we came to Morehead, we just felt so welcomed by
everyone here. I think that was a big thing for both of us."
Kelsey made an impact from the get-go, appearing in 18 matches (14 starts) as a freshman and earning a spot on the All-Ohio Valley Conference Newcomer team. She started all 22 matches as a sophomore and was named second-team All-OVC by College Sports Madness. As a junior, she played 18 games and was named second-team All-OVC.
Kristi saw action in six matches as a freshman and one as a sophomore. She broke through as a junior to play in 16 matches.
"I started playing the middle of last year, when Kelsey got hurt," Kristi said, referring to her sister suffering a concussion. "I started starting after that, and Kelsey then moved up to midfield. So that's been really exciting to get to play with her and not just sub out."
Lipka says that Kelsey was a bit more advanced in her play than Kristi was as a freshman, but both players have taken steady strides.
"Kelsey started out as an attacker and then we moved her to the back, and she really flourished there," Lipka said. "And now we've pushed her back up on the attacking end of the field for her senior year.
"Kristi was always a defender and just was a little bit behind in the technical area than her sister was. She got a chance to get on the field last year and really did very well, and had a really good spring. So they're finishing their careers off on a high note. They just really have come along. Especially Kristi has come a long way, and Kelsey has been able to adjust to any place that we've put her on the field."
Being twins, is there a "sixth sense" that allows the Gomezes to instinctively know what the other is going to do?
No, says Kristi. But being on the same teams since early childhood does help.
"As long as we've been playing, we've been together," Kelsey said. "I think she just kind of understands what I'm doing, and especially now that I'm playing on the same side of the field as her, it's a lot easier for both of us to just work off of each other."
Kristi, a nursing major, hopes someday "to do something really cool in critical-care trauma, something crazy and different."
Kelsey, an accounting major, is eying the possibility of playing professional soccer after college.
Meanwhile, the twins simply want to do their best for MSU. And, on occasion, poke fun at one another and their contrasting personalities.
"We're pretty opposite. I'm more easy going and she's wild," Kristi said with a laugh. "… I'm nicer."
Given a chance to rebut, Kelsey countered, "I think I'm the more-fun twin. So she can be nicer. I'll just be more fun."
Lipka's just glad the right place, right time scenario played out.
"They're great leaders by example," the coach said. "I think their strongest point is their competitiveness. They love to compete. They hate to lose. And that's what they bring to this team, is that you need to come out and you've got to work hard and do your job every day."
