Katy Frierson can no longer keep all of her thoughts to herself.

Or at least if she wants to win.

After being voted team captain and being named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List, the junior midfielder knows it’s time to for her raise her voice and lead an Auburn squad that was picked by league coaches to finish first in the SEC West this season.

Head coach Karen Hoppa has already seen a change in Frierson’s behavior since preseason practices began.

“On the field she was just a little bit quieter,” Hoppa said of Frierson last season. “Slowly, she’s become more and more of a communicator, and we’ve heard her significantly now this year.”

Frierson’s coaches are happy with where her ball-handling skills are at, and now they’re working to develop her vocal game.

“As I’ve gotten older, my roles have changed on the team,” Frierson said. “This year … I just need to convey what I’m thinking to my teammates.”

The Homewood native was recently placed on the Hermann Trophy Watch List, the Heisman Trophy of soccer, which is awarded to the top player in the nation. While Hoppa was a finalist for the award as a player at Central Florida in 1990, Frierson is the first player from Auburn ever to be placed on the initial watch list.

“We were at Orange Beach for preseason and Coach pulled everyone together for a team meeting and she just told us the news,” Friereson said. “It’s a huge honor. It’s a testament to the team and where we’re going as a program.”

The Tigers returned earlier this week from their preseason training camp in Orange Beach, where they stayed in oceanfront condos and held two practices a day in addition to sporadic weight sessions. The camp allowed the players a chance to reconnect and the freshmen to mingle with their new teammates.

“When we go to Orange Beach, it really helps because we get away from Auburn and all of the hype before school starts, and it’s just us,” junior defender Julie King said.

And the soccer complex at Orange Beach just happens to be where the SEC Tournament will be held this year.

The Tigers will open their season today at home against Tennessee Tech, where they hope to build off last season’s 2-1 overtime loss to California in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Last year, Auburn went 10-9-3 (6-5-0 SEC), finishing third in the SEC West. But with the return of Frierson and 2009 Second-Team All-SEC selection Sammy Towne, and a highly touted freshman class, the Tigers have the depth to win the conference and advance past the second round of the NCAA Tournament — something they have yet to do as a program.

Of Auburn’s eight freshmen, four hail from California. Hoppa gives credit for luring players from out West to assistant coach Amy Berbary. As a former assistant at Dayton, Berbary established a name for herself in California by consistently recruiting players from soccer leagues out there.

“We’ve never been able to attract California kids before, and they have the best youth soccer in the country,” Hoppa said. “We found the right ones that were willing to leave the state, and once one committed … we got three more. It legitimized us as a program in California and made us more recognizable in that state.”

And those four have brought a change of pace to the team, both on and off the field.

“Most of them didn’t know a lot about Auburn,” Hoppa said. “Sometimes California kids are like, ‘Are you in Georgia? Are you in Alabama?’ They’re not really sure of that. But when we got them on campus, they just fell in love with it.”

Although Frierson said the players from California bring a different style of play, she believes it helps the team become more versatile on the field.

“The whole team’s been evolving and trying to find our identity, and they’ve been a part of that for sure,” Frierson said.

Finding their identity will begin today against the Golden Eagles.

“We need to take care of the non-conference teams so when it comes conference time we’ve found our rhythm, found how to score goals and how to defend together,” Frierson said.

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