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After more than one Western Guilford girls soccer game this season, an opposing coach would shake George Kennedy's hand and say he wished the Hornets' Lindsey Nusdeo played for their school.

For their boys team.

"She's just a prepared athlete. She's willing to compete," Kennedy said. "It's just wonderful to watch."

Nusdeo, who will suit up for Elon next year along with fellow Hornets player Claire O'Keeffe, posted 17 goals and 19 assists this season for Western, which advanced to the 3-A state semifinals for a second straight year.

Most every Hornets attack worked through Nusdeo somehow.

Kennedy said the senior captain decided before the season that she wanted to be more aggressive winning balls in the air on goal and corner kicks. So through sheer force of will, she did. She'd track where the ball was heading, plant herself there and defy anybody to keep her from getting a piece of it.

"That wasn't coaching. She wanted to figure it out," Kennedy said. "I had to ask her one game -- that's like 20 or 30 headers, are you OK?"

"Yeah," she replied, as if wondering why anyone would even ask. "I'm good."

That tenacity created a never-ending assault on opposing defenses, which would become exasperated at their inability to find breathing room.

"Oh my goodness, it was all her determination, her athletic ability and her ability to get up in the air and win the ball in a variety of circumstances," Kennedy said. "I've seen her contend with every kind of defense that they could put on her -- double marks, pushing, bumping her before she goes up ... everything short of just committing a brutal foul."

Even when someone did manage to slow her with physical play, Nusdeo's motor never cut out. She just kept charging.

"She wasn't 100 percent in a lot of games," Kennedy said, "but no one would ever know what 100 percent was because she played so dominantly. To me, that was like, 'Wow, Lindsey, you are a special player.'"