Valeria Lizcano is a redshirt sophomore who is in her second season in the Rockets' program after transferring from North Florida in 2024. A Bogotá, Colombia native, Lizcano is majoring in economics.

On playing golf in Colombia
Golf is very popular. I started playing when I was seven years old. I was trying to get into sports, and my mom showed me different options. When I first saw a golf course, I completely fell in love with it. We have a lot of good players in Colombia and a lot of players playing at the collegiate level right now. We had a lot of courses in Bogotá where I could play.

On playing other sports
I played soccer all the way through high school. Playing soccer was hard to do, because I loved golf so much. Soccer wasn't something that I was that competitive in since golf was my priority.

On her hobbies and interests
I like drawing a lot and I like a lot of sports in general. I'm a sporty person. I really like to draw animals, especially dogs. I've had five dogs in my whole life and drew pictures of each of them at some point.

On her family in Colombia
My family includes my dad, my mom and my little sister who's 13 years old now. They're all very passionate about sports. My dad used to play soccer, and he's always helped me with golf in general as far as being on time, going to practice and all of that. My sister likes to play basketball, and we're a close family. My mom didn't play sports and is more into academics and always taught me how important it was to do well in school. She's a doctor and has specialties as a neonatologist and pediatrician.

On majoring in economics
I'm very passionate about data analytics in general, econometrics, and I like studying society behavior. I think economics is the combination between business and math that I really like. I'm planning on getting my master's degree here as well.

On adjusting to life in the United States
It was tough, because you're forced to be independent. It was a big change going from high school to your adult life and having to balance academics with sports. We don't have the opportunity to go to college and play golf in Colombia. Moving here right after high school required a lot of time-management and self-management skills.

On the impact of being so far away from family
It's hard. I miss them a lot. This winter is the first time I'm not going to go back home in December, and I'm not going to see them for a full year. It's tough. Sometimes when I have bad rounds or just bad days the first thing I do is call my family and tell them how I'm doing. They always have the best advice, and they're my greatest supporters.

On transferring to Toledo
I was looking for an opportunity to grow and contribute more to a program. I think that's been something that was key for me here. I've been able to contribute a lot to the team, and it's been great. We have a very international team right now, so that has made it easier to adapt to everything. We share a lot of experiences, and Toledo has helped me grow in many areas and one of the biggest things was to improve my confidence.

On what surprised her the most in the United States
It is the passion that people have for multiple sports. In Colombia, we are all big soccer fans and don't care as much for other sports. Here it's everything. I had also never been to a football game, so I got to see my first one when I came to Toledo. It has been great to see how some people cheer for their university and support different teams.

On the impact Head Coach Ali Green has made
She has had a great impact. Our practices have been more structured since Day One. We have goals for the team like being in the Top 150 in the nation. We want to perform very good in conference and we're aiming to grow. She's looking for us to improve and has set up our practices to make us better. We can already see the difference after playing in our first tournament last week and know the direction we're heading.