CHICAGO—Senior midfielder Elena Esparcia Cañada fell into the Illinois Institute of Technology women's soccer team's lap prior to the 2019 campaign after she spent her freshman and sophomore seasons at NCAA Division II Mount Olive College (NC.). The senior from Valencia, Spain wasted no time in the acclimation process as she landed 2019 All-NACC Honorable Mention after three goals and four assists for 10 points over 19 games played as a junior. Despite contributing in 24 games over two seasons at Mount Olive, Esparcia Cañada felt a change was necessary athletically and academically.

"I decided I needed a tough academic school, and a great soccer team that was evolving," said Esparcia Cañada. "I would describe my first impression as amazed! I didn't realize it was so close to downtown, so you can do pretty much anything here."

One can imagine a tremendous shift in lifestyle from Mount Olive, North Carolina, a town of 4,589 people to the third-most-populous city in the country. It was a unique challenge that excited Esparcia Cañada.

"Both places are the complete opposite," said Esparcia Cañada. "There wasn't much to do other than college life in Mount Olive as the closest town was an hour away. Chicago is more of what I'm used to as I grew up in a large city, so it was everything I was looking for."

Esparcia Cañada's high school playing days also consisted of two destinations. Her first taste of high school competition was primarily indoor futsal, which is played on a small indoor surface. The traditional soccer field called Esparcia Cañada's name during her junior season, where she led her team to a fourth-place finish in the Spanish Second National Division.

"We had a really good team of players that had competed professionally and with the Spanish National Team," said Esparcia Cañada. "There were a lot of great players I learned from for those couple of seasons."

While Esparcia Cañada benefitted from an assortment of great teammates, her parents were the foundation of her successes.

"They always took me to practices when I couldn't drive, and gave me their blessing on coming over here to keep playing and go to school, and maybe professionally later on," said Espacria Cañada, whose post-Illinois Tech plan involves playing soccer, without a preference on a specific destination. 

The Scarlet Hawks plan to open their 2020-21 season at home on Wednesday, March 10 against Aurora University.