There was never a doubt which uniform number Anna Casmere would wear when she began her soccer career at Benet.
She picked No. 21 for two reasons. Anna Casmere was born on Oct. 21, and her older sister Abby wore it during her sterling four-year varsity career with the Redwings.
“I never officially had it for club, but I’ve always wanted it,” Anna Casmere said. “I never wanted to have it at the same time as her because I wanted her to have her own thing and me to do the same.
“We were very different players, but also similar at the same time. We both needed to kind of follow our own path, just do it the way we do.”
Anna Casmere plays forward, just as Abby Casmere did. But whereas Abby Casmere was a center forward, Anna Casmere does her thing on the left wing.
“I love to run,” Anna Casmere said. “I love the feeling of just getting that ball and the breakthroughs and everything. It feels awesome getting to cross it in and having other people finish them, just seeing the joy on other people’s faces.”
The Redwings have experienced a lot of joy during the Casmere era, which will conclude this spring after eight consecutive seasons.
Anna Casmere, one of eight seniors, is hoping her career ends the same way her sister’s did — with a Class 2A state championship. Abby Casmere scored a team-leading 20 goals and had the assist on Jaimee Cibulka’s game-winning goal against Wauconda in the 2019 state championship game.
Anna Casmere hasn’t been quite as prolific as a scorer, although that may be changing. She finished her junior season with nine goals and seven assists, most of which came late in the season, including the tying and winning goals in a 3-2 victory against Deerfield in the state semifinals.
Casmere already is on pace to surpass those numbers. She had four goals and three assists in the first four games for the Redwings (4-0), who lost 1-0 to Troy Triad in the state championship game last season.
“We expect Anna to do a whole lot of both, especially knowing the expectations of how we want to play,” Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. “Last year she put a lot of pressure on herself to help fill the void that Jaimee Cibulka left, and I think now she realizes she’s just one of many pieces.
“That helps relax her and lets her focus on doing her job. That’s why she’s been so effective for us.”
Casmere’s effectiveness was on display again Tuesday. She didn’t score, but her play helped lead to the tying and go-ahead goals as the Redwings rallied to edge Glenbard West 2-1 in a Wheaton North Kickoff Tournament game in Lisle.
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Glenbard West (0-2) led 1-0 when Casmere raced into the left side of the penalty area and was taken down by a defender. Keira Petrucelli converted the ensuing penalty kick with 4:27 left in the first half.
The game was still tied when Casmere took a pass from Rania Fikri, got around a defender into the box and unleashed a hard shot from 12 yards out.
Glenbard West goalkeeper Ava Callaway tipped the ball off the crossbar, but Benet’s Ivana Vukas buried the rebound with 11:05 to go in the second half.
“I just like how she’s very direct, so I kind of know what I’m expecting from her, how she’s going to keep going forward and not really cut it back,” Vukas said. “She’s very confident when she goes toward the goal.”
Casmere, who had three goals and an assist in Benet’s 7-0 drubbing of Marist on Monday, won’t play in college. She intends to study biomedical engineering at Iowa. But she does have high goals for her final season.
“I knew first day of tryouts that we had so much potential, and we’ve been 100% living up to that potential, and we will continue to grow as a team,” she said. “We can make it very far.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
