Career Resume
Scored 70 career points with 31 goals and eight assists
Is second in career goals with 31
Owns the record for the most assists in a game with four
Named to the inaugural MSUB Women's Soccer All-Decade Team (1996-2005)
Feature Story: Farmer's Resilience Leads MSUB Women (By Greg Rachac/Billings Gazette, 10/15/2001) - Original Publication
The last two soccer seasons haven't been all that fun for Montana State Billings forward Abby Farmer.
It would be hard for anyone to classify breaking a tibia in one season, then coming back and breaking your wrist at the start of the next as anything but fun, but that's exactly what Farmer has had to endure in the last half of her collegiate career.
As the Yellowjackets' only senior and the player that coach Carlos Arce calls "the tradition of the program", Farmer has been a staple at the forward position at MSUB for nearly five years. But this particular season almost didn't happen for her.
During the early part of an early-season match with the University of Mary last season, Farmer, a native of Casper, Wyo., collided with a Marauder player and broke her left tibia, ending her season.
"I was just going for a bouncing ball," said Farmer, the team captain. "The timing of it was perfect. Our legs just clashed and mine gave way. I was shocked. I knew right then and there that my leg was broken."
"A freak occurrence. It was in the first minute, a freak occurrence," Arce said. "The two players collided and, 'snap'. But it was early enough in the season, so we applied for a medical hardship. And fortunately it came through."
That brings us to this season, one that Farmer didn't know she'd be able to play in. Once the medical redshirt was awarded to her by the NCAA, however, she was relieved.
But more frustration followed.
In the third game of this season, against Mesa State (Colo.), Farmer took a ball off her hand, which snapped her wrist downward. The impact left her with a broken wrist, but more importantly kept her out of the MSUB lineup for about three weeks.
"It was a fluke," she said of her latest injury. "My arm was at my side, and the ball just happened to hit my hand perfectly, and snapped it back. I thought, 'why does this have to happen again?' Missing those three weeks was really rough."
Farmer is pretty much healed at this point in the year, although she does have to wear a brace over the wrist when she plays. But the injuries will not be her legacy when she leaves her college career behind.
The former Casper Natrona star was a touted recruit when she came to the Yellowjackets in 1997-98, which was just the second season in the program's history. Since that time Farmer has established herself as the best player the team has known.
"She represents a trem-endous work ethic," said Arce, now in his fourth year as the Jackets' coach. "A true student of the game. She's got a natural nose for the goal, she likes to shoot and take players on. She's been the offensive strength of this program from the beginning."
After being the leading scorer at Natrona, Farmer came to MSUB and hasn't slowed down. But the goals are not what matters to her. In fact, she doesn't even know how many she's gotten through the years.
"A goal scorer ought to know how many they've gotten," Farmer said. "But to me it's not the goals that are important, it's the buildup from behind. It's the team that really scores the goals."
Arce was just as elated as Farmer when the redshirt season was given to her, citing the tremendous experience she has provided to a program that brought in several good recruits into this season, including midfielders Margot Merril-Johnson (Salt Lake City) and Stephanie Clark (Tualatin, Ore.), and forward Kim Cathey (Hampstead, Md.).
The youthfulness doesn't end there. Besides Farmer, MSUB has just three other players with more than two years of college soccer experience in juniors Victoria McCarthy, Cami Rainey and Kristen Johnson.
The young team is currently 6-7 this season, but will get a chance to avenge a Sept. 12, 3-0 setback to Rocky Mountain College this afternoon at College of Technology Field. The match begins at 3:30.
"We didn't play our game last time," Farmer said. "If we can get our transition from defense to offense going, then we should be okay. Rocky's going to come out to play, but so are we. I think we're definitely the better team. But we need to show it, and I think we will show it."
