From the minute senior Mission Bay High soccer player Micaela Cervantes stepped onto Pepperdine University’s campus, she fell in love. “I love the campus. I love the small size. I love the coaches. I love my teammates. I just love everything about it,” Cervantes said. Cervantes will suit up for the Waves this fall. She has one goal in mind. “Just to come in as fit as possible and see what happens from there,” Cervantes said. An incoming freshman’s fitness is something college coaches are typically unimpressed by, but Cervantes comes from a background of excellence. She comes to practice ready to work. In games, she knows how to win balls, when to pass and when to shoot. Cervantes continues to work on her craft. “I’ve always been a midfielder, but my club team [Surf] was full of midfielders, so they put me at center back,” Cervantes said. “I was so scared and didn’t know what I was doing, but throughout the season I learned how to play that position. “So now I consider myself more of a defender than a midfielder,” she said. “So that’s been a pretty big accomplishment for me because now I can play every position on the field. That really helped me grow as a player.”