By Austin Badzik (@austinbadzik15):
In her quest to become one of SJSU’s best women’s soccer players of all time, Dorthe Hoppius, also known as “Didi,” has made significant strides toward that goal.
“She’s a special player,” said coach Lauren Hanson. “She’s got great competitive nature and wants to win.”
Hoppius is off to another hot start to the season, with five points in just games.
In her first year, Hoppius built a promising freshman campaign with two goals on 10 shots while logging 1,282 minutes.
It wasn’t till her sophomore year that Hoppius really broke out and emerged as a star player. In 2015, Didi continued her success by scoring three game-winning goals—one of which catapulted the Spartans into the Mountain West Tournament.
Didi is one of the more prolific players in NCAA women’s soccer, as her skillset was on full display against Nevada. In one of the bigger games of year Didi’s breakaway speed lead to an eventual game-winning goal in the 47th minute that resulted in a 2-0 Spartans victory.
In her junior year, Hoppius turned in her best season, posting career highs in shots on goal (66) and assists (4) to go along with eight goals—tying her career high.
Hoppius has put up potent numbers at San Jose State, with 18 goals, 44 points and a total of six game winners. While her 18 goals currently place her fourth for the Spartans, Hoppius has her sights set even higher as she aims to climb SJSU’s all-time list.
“Before the season I actually looked it up,” Hoppius said. “I want to be SJSU’s all-time leader. I knew coming into the season I needed 15 goals.”
Goals aren’t the only thing on San Jose State’s star player’s mind, however, The most important thing to Didi is winning.
“I want to finish first in the conference and win the tournament,” Hoppius said.
DiDi and teammate Miya Wilkes want to continue their success this year and hope to win the mountain west conference. That being said, they are also making plans after they finish up their illustrious careers at SJSU.
“Didi and I wanna play pro together,” Wilkes said. “I want to go Europe and play with her. I want to go anywhere in the world to keep playing soccer.”
Despite a slow start to the season, the Spartans know they are a much better team than what their record indicates, and Didi is going to make sure of that.
