Redshirt senior Jannelle Flaws isn’t 100 percent, but it won’t stop the Illinois soccer team’s all-time leading scorer from being on the field and contributing to the team.

Flaws is dealing with chronic Plantar Fasciitis. The effects of the injury vary day-to-day.

“Some days it feels really good, some days it hurts,” Flaws said after Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Maryland in overtime. “It just really depends. Today it definitely really hurt.”

Head coach Janet Rayfield noted that a player as competitive as Flaws is always willing to work and improve. For that reason, Rayfield said it is hard to shut her down.

“When you get beat up as much as she does, something is always sore,” Rayfield said. “She’s battling through some foot soreness, so we’re really going to try to get her healthy this week.”

The good news for Flaws is that her injury is isolated. Her plantar fasciitis provides minimal risk to other injury.

“By playing through it I’m not damaging any other part of my body,” Flaws said. “It’s one of those I just have to suck up and play through.”

Flaws wants to be on the field during games but is not opposed to limiting her minutes if it benefits the team. At the end of the day, she thinks of herself as a team player.

“The plan is just to get myself to a place where I can be the best player,” Flaws said. “If that comes down to taking a few practices off — or something like that — or taking more breaks in the game, (I’ll do) whatever is best for this team.”

Breece’s impact being felt

Senior midfielder/forward hybrid Nicole Breece did it all on Sunday for the Illini.

Breece started the scoring off with her signature flip throw-in, which found the laces freshman of Katie Murray right in front of the net.

“My role with the flip through is just to give us another chance,” Breece said. “I’m doing everything that I can to give us another chance, and Katie did a great job getting on the end of that.”

Breece’s other role is to consistently get the ball into scoring areas. On Sunday, however, it was Breece on the finishing end.

The St. Louis-native scored the game-winning goal in the 118th minute of a double-overtime game on a header coming after a long, Hope D’Addario cross.

“I saw a ball coming in from Hope — a great ball — and I tried to get something on it, and when it went in, I was thrilled,” Breece said. “This time, I took the role of trying to get myself in and finish, so it was awesome.”

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