Friesz to play college soccer

The University of Jamestown announced the signing of Jessica Friesz to their women’s soccer team.

Head coach Nick Becker announced the signing of Jessica Friesz, who just graduated from the high school last week with a 4.0 GPA.

Jamestown is a small university in Jamestown, North Dakota, which is an hour and a half out of Bismark and has about 1,000 students. The school is a Division II college.

Friesz was a four-year player for the Trojans and also played club soccer with a team named the Pahrump Trojans.

As of December of last year, she was not planning on playing soccer in college.

“I was planning on going to school at MSU (Minnesota State University) and living near my parents,” Friesz said. “My friend Gabby Vasquez will be playing soccer in Washington and I thought to myself, maybe I should look into it. I was then contacted by Jamestown in December. I finally made up my mind after I visited the college in April.”

Friesz was given a tour of the school and was able to meet some of her new teammates and when she returned home she signed with the school.

“The school is small and that is what I like,” she said. “I didn’t want to go to a big school where they have 200 students in the classroom. At this school, the classes were small at 35. I also love small towns.”

Of course going from the desert to the cold winters of North Dakota will also be a big challenge for Friesz, despite her last name.

“I hate the cold weather,” she said. “I would visit dad in Minnesota and after two days in the snow I wanted to leave. That is one thing I will miss in the winter and that is the warm weather here.”

Her new coach will be Nick Becker.

“Friesz will provide us with the versatility to play in numerous spots on the field.” Becker said.

“She not only brings a great academic background, but also brings a great attitude and work rate that fits the mold of the team. I am excited to get Jessica.”

Jessica plans to major in Exercise Science and is the daughter of Carrie and Jodd Friesz.

The University of Jamestown was established in 1883 and is ranked as a top tier regional school in US News and World Report and a top Midwestern school in the Princeton Review.

To date, three other students from Pahrump Valley will be playing for this school in the fall, TJ Milk, Danny Foss and Devlin Dillon.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com