Australia native Doyle hits hard for the Cougs

A former rugby player, senior defender Rachael Doyle, gives the word “defense” a new meaning on the soccer pitch.

With a big smile, Doyle picked one aspect of her rugby game that transferred over to the pitch.

“Hitting people hard and crushing people,” she said while laughing.

A native of New South Wales, Australia, It’s hard to believe that Washington State’s charming Aussie would crush an opposing forward. But Doyle grew up the youngest of four siblings, so competition was always a part of her life.

“I have a brother who is two years older than me, so we played in almost every sport together,” she said.

Doyle explained that rugby isn’t as widely played in Australia as everyone thinks. She enjoyed playing pickup games for a majority of her childhood, but she always had a special focus on soccer.

“My oldest brother played and I was the last one of my siblings to get into it, but I loved it,” she said.

Doyle, whose love of the game brought her to Pullman, took a big risk when she made her college decision without visiting the campus.

“I thought it’d be a lot bigger. Although I knew it was a college town, I thought it would be a big, big town, kinda more borderline city, “she said. “Then I came here and I was like, ‘Oh, there are fields… Cool!’ But, I mean it’s been awesome.”

Although Doyle still misses home sometimes, she sees the positive side of life in Pullman.

“It’s a lot different than living in Sydney, which has just been a good new experience to have somewhere different to live,” she said.

Along with the change of scenery, Doyle experienced a change in language upon arriving in Pullman.

“I had a lot of accent language barriers. I still get called out for how I say ‘no’ and I don’t know what they’re talking about. They make fun of me, but it’s fine. It’s funny,” she said.

And while it may have taken her a little while to get used to the lingo around campus, it didn’t take long to understand the importance of beating the Cougars’ bitter rival.

“It was pretty quick. I was like, ‘Who are the Huskies?’ Woo… Bad question to ask. So yeah, I knew straight away,” Doyle said.

Throughout her four seasons as a starter at Washington State, Doyle has gotten to experience more than most. She got involved with the WSU soccer team through her connection with friends from Sydney who were playing soccer in the United States.

“I had a couple friends who had come over and played at Nevada for Graham, who was our old coach,” she said. “And so, I knew his kind of coaching and that kind of thing and I came here.”

Doyle played for two seasons under Matt Porter at Washington State before he left Pullman to take a head coaching position with the Oklahoma Sooners. After his departure, Doyle had mixed emotions.

“I was a little nervous, but I think it was also exciting to have something different,” she said. “I mean, I played there for two years – it wasn’t bad at all – but I knew I kinda wanted to play a little more ‘football’ per say instead of the type of game we played with them. So now we keep the ball more – move it – It’s a little bit more of what I’m used to.”

Keidane McAlpine took over coaching responsibilities for the Cougars when he was hired in January of 2012 and Doyle reminisced on some of the great moments the team has had since that point. One painful but encouraging memory was how close the Cougars came to knocking off the Stanford Cardinal in Stanford, CA.

After coming back from a 2-0 deficit last season, Doyle is looking forward to the Cardinal visiting Pullman this year.

“The huge thing so far has been playing Stanford here,” she said. “I think that weekend will be sweet if we can pull a win there and go on the next weekend to beat UW. I think it’s going to be a good year for us.”

Doyle will get to face a tough conference schedule. There are a few games that she is especially looking forward to in her senior season.

“UCLA, obviously,” she said. “They’re probably the best team in the Pac-12 right now. And Oregon State, I don’t know what it is about them, but when we play them I always want to beat them. They’re always hard. They’ve got a good front line.”

Entering her final season, Doyle is focused completely on soccer.

“My whole life has been, ‘Oh, I can’t, I have soccer’ so, I’m used to it already,” she said. “There are times when you miss out on things, but it’s worth it in the end.”