Drive comes in many forms. It can come from desire, fear, and pride, among other factors. For senior Karlie Lema of the No. 22 California women's soccer team, who leads the nation in goals and points, it comes from her competitive genes and a childhood's worth of contests, many of which took place in the home.
 
Lema comes from a family of athletes down the road in Morgan Hill, about 90 minutes south of campus. Her father, Dave, played football at San Jose City College and her mother, Annie, ran track at Northern Colorado. All her four of her siblings and step siblings were involved in sports very early on, and some still are today.
 
"There was never a dull moment. Everything is a competition," Lema said with a smile. "There's not one day where we weren't competing for something - who gets to the dinner table first, or whatever it is."
 
For Lema, soccer began around the age of 10, a much later start than that of many Division I stars. She grew up participating in track and field and gymnastics. It wasn't until she saw her stepbrother, Drew Bergholz, running around on the pitch that she thought she might try her foot at it.
 
"I saw [Bergholz] playing and thought I'd kind of like to try that," Lema said. "I just immediately loved it."
 
Before long, Lema was not only playing soccer, but she was also playing on her stepbrother's team in a boys league. Even then, she was a standout athlete and goal-scorer, and credits those days for making her the competitor she is today.
 
"I think that toughened me up a bit," Lema said. "I really enjoyed playing in that league. The boys were very welcoming to me. I think they liked having me on the team. They definitely gave my brother a hard time, though."
 
Lema began playing for the Mountain View Los Altos Soccer Club (MVLA SC), where her explosive play and athleticism earned her a spot on the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) U16 Northwest All-Conference Team. She immediately started to catch the eye of coaches, including that of Cal head coach Neil McGuire.
 
Before she ever stepped foot on campus at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, where she would compete for the next four years, the then-eighth-grader Lema verbally committed to Cal, a program whose youth camps she had been attending for years.
 
"It kind of just happened in the blink of an eye," Lema said. "I went to all the Cal camps, and I have wanted to go here since I was little. I kept thinking 'it's going to be forever before I get to Cal,' but it went by so fast and now I'm a senior in college and that went by even faster."
 
During her four not-so-long years in high school, Lema became a four-star recruit and was named Blossom Valley League MVP on three occasions. She also spent time with the United States Youth National Team (USYNT). While soccer was her main endeavor, she also competed in the Track and Field Junior Olympics three times and took home a bronze medal in the 200-meter hurdles.
 
Before even reporting to camp for her first year at Cal, pressure already surrounded her and the rest of 13-person freshman class. With 11 top-200 recruits, including Lema at No. 36, the group was dubbed the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer. Three years later, the group is tighter than it's ever been.
 
"We are the closest class there is," Lema said. "Right when we got there, we all just clicked instantly and stayed close knit throughout the years. We were all a little nervous at first, but for me, once I got here, I saw that the competition was good and that I could do well in this environment, so I think right when I got here it was a pretty easy transition."
 
Despite battling injuries and even getting hip surgery after her freshman year, Lema has been a four-year standout and everyday starter who was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and All-Pac-12 Third Team last year. It wasn't until this season that the sport got to see what she's capable of when full healthy.
 
Lema currently leads Division I with 11 goals, 31 points, a 3.18 shots on goal per game average and a 2.82 points per game average. She also ranks second in the nation in goals per game (1.18) and leads the Bears with five assists. She already has five multi-goal outings this season, including a hat trick, three game-winners and two equalizers.
 
"Over her collegiate career, Karlie has shown steady growth in all aspects of her play," McGuire said. "One of the biggest advancements has been her adding variety to the way she can score goals, ranging from pure power, to finesse, to her prowess in the air. She has committed to learning the art of goal-scoring, and the results are for all to see. Karlie is blessed with incredible speed and power, but what often goes unnoticed is her intuitive sense for finding the goal-scoring opportunity. Adding all this to her fierce competitiveness gives Karlie qualities that are hard to defend."
 
Lema has scored in a variety of ways this season. She has been set up by her teammates, she's caught defenses napping, she's won balls in the penalty area, she's tapped in rebounds, and on several occasions, she has used her athleticism and speed to create opportunities that just aren't obtainable for every athlete on the pitch. She only has one speed – go.
 
"I'm the type to just want to play every minute," Lema said. "I always want to go. I'm working on being under the ball, but I always think I can get there, and it's worked a few times. I'm just really competitive so I try to everything possible to get the ball in the back of the net and my teammates do a good job of supporting me in that."
 
"It is fair to say our team is full of competitors, which makes our training as challenging as any game," McGuire said. However, Karlie possesses a fiercely competitive streak that drives her. "Off the field, Karlie is humble, kind and gracious. On the field, she is a warrior and a player who inspires others to follow her. That's the perfect blend for an elite level athlete who aspires to greatness."
 
Her dynamic style has led to an incredible senior season so far for both her and the Bears. The Bears finished the nonconference slate with a 7-1-1 record, with their only loss coming to No. 12 Santa Clara on the road in the second match of the season. Cal has gone 7-0-2 since that defeat and last week began its first campaign in the ACC, a conference that's widely regarded as the best in collegiate soccer. Lema and the Bears became the first Cal program to win an ACC contest, defeating NC State on the road 3-1 on Sep 19.
 
While Lema has received national attention throughout the entire season, she was particularly lauded on Sep. 11 when she took home NCAA National Player of the Week, Top Drawer Player of the Week, and ACC Offensive Player of the Week. She tallied five total goals and an assist in a couple convincing wins over Nevada and San Diego. Of Cal's seven goals scored that week, she had her hand in all but one of them - a Nevada own goal.
 
"It was really cool to get those awards, Lema said. "I've never worried about that stuff usually, but after putting the ball in the back of the net that many times I was hoping maybe I would be on some lists. Over the last few years, I wasn't playing to my full potential because I was playing hurt, but this year I'm healthy and able to show everything that I have to offer. It's exciting to see that all the work I've put in finally showed and meant something."