By: Casey Crigger, Austin Peay Athletics Communications Assistant (Exclusive for LetsGoPeay.com)
As you've likely heard, we don't have any live-action contests to cover at LetsGoPeay.com right now. What we do have is free time; oodles and oodles of free time. Enough free time to swap oodles of emails with various people who would know to create a snapshot of the best athletes in Austin Peay soccer history. The final spot on our countdown goes to the greatest offensive player in program history, who just happens to be the other half of the most dynamic duo the Ohio Valley Conference has ever seen.
When we started doing these Greatest Govs lists, there was some contention about who would occupy the number one spot for some sports, but – and no disrespect to anyone else on this list – this was an absolute no-brainer. Tatiana Ariza was simply dominant in her four years at Austin Peay, working her way to the top of the record book in essentially every offensive category.
Ariza holds nine Austin Peay single-season records and 12 career records, so let's talk about that. With 16 goals in 2011 and 15 in 2013, Ariza has the top-two goal-scoring seasons in program history. She also scored 11 times in 2010 and 12 times in 2012, meaning she currently occupies four of the top-seven spots on the single-season goals list. In her career, she tallied 54 goals, which puts her at the top of the career goals scored list with a 24 goal cushion between her and the next closest Gov.
But, Ariza did not just score goals; with eight assists in 2012 and seven in 2011, she owns the two best single-season assist totals in program history. 24 times in her career Ariza dished out the pass leading to a teammates score, and that makes her the only player in program history to record more than 20 assists in a career.
When you are the program's all-time leader in goals and assists, you are going to rack up a lot of points, 132 of them to be exact – nobody else in program history has more than 70 points. Ariza is the only player in program history to score 30 points in a single-season, she did it three times, posting point totals of 39, 32, and 34 in her final three seasons. With a 27-point season in 2010, Ariza holds four of the top-five single-season point totals in program history.
However, Ariza did not just rack up scoring record during her time in Clarksville, she helped lead the Govs to a record of 47-28-5 (.619%) during her four years. With Ariza on the roster, the Govs averaged 11.75 wins per season – the best four-year stretch in program history – and made a pair of appearances in the OVC Championship match.
Joining her twin sister Natalia, Tatiana Ariza is one of two Governors in program history to receive four all-conference honors in their career, and she is the only Gov to be a First-Team All-OVC selection in all four seasons. In 2010, Ariza was named to the OVC All-Newcomer team and became the first player in program history to be named the OVC Freshman of the Year. Two years later she became the first player in Austin Peay history to be named the OVC Offensive Player of the Year, while also picking up a National Soccer Coaches Association of America Second-Team All-South selection.
During her time at Austin Peay, Ariza never missed a chance to represent her home country of Colombia on the national stage. The Bogota native missed the first two games of her freshman season to play for the National Team in the U19 FIFA World Cup. Then in 2012, Ariza spent the summer playing for the Colombian National Team at the 2012 London Olympics.