Valparaiso senior Claire Brown feels like a freshman again. Not that Brown didn’t enjoy her sophomore and junior seasons. But another postseason run has the senior midfielder flashing back to her first year as a varsity player. “Whether we were winning or losing, it’s always been a great time,” she said. “But it’s definitely fueled my fire to do better this year and obviously win.” Brown, a four-year varsity starter, will suit up for the second regional semifinal of her career when Valparaiso (13-4-2) continues its Class 3A postseason against host Crown Point (14-2) on Wednesday. The Vikings, who beat Hobart 1-0 in the Portage Sectional championship game on Saturday, had last won a sectional title during Brown’s freshman year in 2021. Brown has established career highs with four goals and three assists this season, but Valparaiso coach Rob Cespedes said numbers don’t fully capture her contributions. “She’s a playmaker in the middle,” Cespedes said. “She doesn’t get a whole lot of recognition with the assist or the goal, but she’s the one who turns defense into offense. She’s the catalyst for the attacks that we have.” Brown believes that’s the part of her game that has developed the most during her lengthy varsity career. “From my freshman year until now, making passes and being able to see things that are going to happen before they actually happen has improved so much,” she said. “It’s come from playing a lot and in a lot of different situations.” Valparaiso’s Claire Brown, left, moves the ball under pressure from Chesterton’s Olivia Virgil during the Class 3A Valparaiso Sectional championship game on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021. (Michael Gard / Post-Tribune) Brown plays soccer year-round, although she took a few months off this summer to rest a second-degree ankle sprain. “It was probably from overuse,” she said with a laugh. “I sprained it once, but not badly enough to stop playing, and then I kept respraining it.” Brown, who was back to full health by the start of this season, has a deep passion for soccer. That’s also reflected in the way she leads the Vikings. Brown is in her second season as a captain. “She truly is a leader,” Cespedes said. “She talks to the girls before games. Or on the bus rides back, she’s the one talking to them about the game and giving them positive feedback, looking for ways they can improve.” Teammates like senior defender Beatrice Douglas-Arnold agree. Douglas-Arnold, an Ohio Wesleyan commit, has been playing soccer with Brown since fifth grade. “She’s really positive,” Douglas-Arnold said. “I’ve never heard a negative word come out of her mouth. When we need to pick up the intensity in a game, she’s the one shouting, but it’s always positive and constructive.” Douglas-Arnold said Brown has steadily become more confident as a vocal leader on the field. But Brown has never lacked confidence in her physical abilities. In middle school, Brown was the ball girl for Valparaiso games, so she had a front-row seat to watch her older sister Aubrey, a 2023 Valparaiso graduate, before they played together for two seasons. Being so close to the action gave Brown the idea she could be a varsity player as soon as she got to high school. “I saw all of those varsity games, and I was like, ‘I can totally do this,’” she said. “That gave me the confidence. Because I was playing club all through middle school at a very high level, I kind of knew I was capable and ready.” Now Brown is leading a team she believes is capable of winning the program’s first regional title since 2018. “This team just has so much support surrounding each other,” she said. “We all want the best for each other. As cliché as it sounds, there is no ‘I’ in this team. We’re all for each other.” Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.