LA JOLLA, Calif. – Soccer practice? Check. Class? Check. Triton Athletes' Council meeting? Check.
 
Delaney Whittet counts on her planner to keep her on track with her busy schedule as a scholar-athlete on the University of California San Diego women's soccer team. This year, staying organized is more important than ever for Whittet. In her junior year, Whittet is serving as a team captain alongside Kelsey Kimball and Natalie Saddic. Whittet has fully embraced the leadership role, and is striving to help lead her team to a memorable ending to Division II as the new challenge of Division I awaits for her senior campaign.
 
For Whittet, it was a feeling of pure excitement when she found out she would be taking on a team captain role during the 2019 season, UC San Diego's last in Division II.
 
"The captains we've had, especially Natalie [Saddic] and Summer [Bales] last year, were my biggest role models and knowing I'd be able to follow in their footsteps was amazing," Whittet shared. "I talked with Summer a good amount about the legacy she wanted to leave and to do something close to that is awesome. Knowing this is the last year in Division II, I think we're going to make a strong run, and having a leadership role in that is amazing."
 
When taking on the role, Whittet recognized that she would be helping promote the high expectations that she witnessed in her first two years with the team.
 
"I think there's just a certain standard embedded into this program that started many years ago," Whittet observed. "It's a certain way that things are done. We're focused on the little things, from what we wear to always being early. You come in and you see the older girls acting like that and you try to embody that, and I think there's this lasting standard that everyone upholds."
 
That standard is one that is familiar to Triton Head Coach Kristin Jones, as it is one that she promoted herself as a Triton student-athlete from 2000-03. Whittet is grateful to have a coach who was once in her shoes and who takes the time to help her players in a personalized way.
 
"[Coach Jones] really works to coach each player individually," Whittet noted. "She looks for how she can help everyone and then tries to tailor how she coaches to you. For me, I'm so visual, so this past week all I had to do was text her and then I could go in for an hour and go over things on the white board and watch film of myself and that's what helps me. For someone else, she would do something completely different."
 
Because of Jones' ties with the alumnae, she set up a unique experience for the scholar-athletes over Homecoming Weekend. Whittet and some of her teammates wrote letters to the program's alumnae.
 
"Jonesy went through and tried to match us to someone she thought was similar," Whittet recalled. "I wrote mine to an outside back and that was really awesome because it was cool to tell them how much they've left their mark on the program. We see them at every game. They were at the Final Four. To be able to say, 'Hey, I'm doing this for you as much as I'm doing it for myself and my team' was something that you don't always get to do."
 
With the support of the coaches and alumnae behind her and her fellow co-captains, Whittet is working hard to help lead the Tritons to success. The team holds a 14-1-1 record this season as it heads into the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Tournament, which will be held at Triton Soccer Stadium.
 
"I think something that unites us this year is that we all have that same amount of time to win that Division II National Championship," Whittet shared. "In the past, you think, 'We want to play because we don't want it to be our seniors' last game,' but now we want to play because we don't want this to be our last game."
 
Whittet is proud of the work that the team has put in this season as they strive for the championship. She praised this season's team culture and the special bond they have with each other.
 
"Everyone is setting a standard that pushes everyone to be their best," Whittet said. "We have so many freshmen making huge moves in games. Mika [Celeste] is scoring game winners and Erika [Braun] is scoring game winners, and because of that, it's become this cohesive game. Each game is all of ours to win and we need every single piece to make that happen. I think that makes us closer and closer because we're so reliant on each other in the best kind of way."
 
As for what lies on horizon, Whittet knows the team is focused on taking care of business this year, but that there is excitement at the back of everyone's minds.
 
"I'm really looking forward to going Division I," Whittet said. "I think we have so much room to grow. We're so good now and we'll keep getting better. Going into Division I, it's another challenge that we're going to face head on."
 
Watch Whittet and the Tritons pursue a final California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) title at Triton Soccer Stadium this week. UC San Diego will compete in the semifinals of the CCAA Tournament at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15.

About UC San Diego Athletics
With 30 national team championships, nearly 150 individual titles and the top student-athlete graduation rate among Division II institutions in the United States, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program annually ranks as one of the most successful in the country.  The Tritons sponsor 23 intercollegiate sport programs that compete on the NCAA Division I and II levels and, in summer 2020, will transition into full Division I status as a member of the Big West Conference.  UC San Diego student-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent.  A total of 82 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships.  In competition, more than 1,300 UC San Diego student-athletes have earned All-America honors.
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