Liliana Johnson has been around soccer for as long as she can remember. She started playing when she was four years old, but hated it at first.
In fact, she traded soccer for dance as a little girl. That didn't go well either.
So Johnson got back into soccer in the second grade and has played ever since. The sport, and UC Merced, would ultimately change her life.
Johnson grew up 30 minutes northwest of Merced in the town of Ballico and prepped at San Juan South Soccer Club and Hilmar High School. Despite living in Merced County, Johnson had never been to UC Merced until newly hired head coach Roman DuChateau reached out to the Johnson family to gauge interest in the spring of 2022.
Johnson took DuChateau up on the opportunity to visit campus, which included a training session and a tour with one of the all-time program greats Jocelyne Garcia, among other things. The rest is history.
"I absolutely loved the program," Johnson said. "I knew immediately that I wanted to spend my next four years there."
DuChateau offered Johnson on the spot.
"Let's do this," Johnson simply said before making the 20-mile drive back home.
Johnson, who is actually known as Snoop here on campus, proved to be a key midfielder throughout her four years and finished her time as a Bobcat with 62 career games played. In a few weeks, she will be graduating with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences.
"Not everyone can say they studied biology and played college soccer, especially at a UC," Johnson said. "It's pretty cool, so I'm very grateful for the opportunity that Roman gave me. I built some great friendships, lifelong friendships. Looking back on the whole experience is crazy."
Snoop turned her opportunity into something special. She is one of just nine Bobcats in UC Merced women's soccer history to get a California Pacific Conference Championship ring and play on the Bobcats first ever NCAA Division II roster. Johnson also appeared in back-to-back NAIA National Tournaments, and is one of three Bobcats all-time to score a goal in a national tournament match.
Long before championships and goals came her nickname Snoop.
It was during a 100-degree double-day during preseason training her freshman year when the question of the session was, "What music do you listen to on game day?"
"We went around the circle and it got to my turn. I said you can't go wrong with anything Snoop Dogg," Snoop recalled.
Lilly Boucher was a sophomore on the team at the time. So there was Liliana, or Lili, and Lilly.
"Can we call you Snoop?," the team asked the freshman. She agreed.
"I didn't think it would stick, I'll give it day and I'll go back to being LJ or Lili I thought. It stuck, and now I introduce myself to anyone in the athletics community as Snoop."
Snoop debuted in the 21st minute of the Bobcats season opener on August 23, 2022, in a 7-0 win over Lincoln.
"Subbing in for the Bobcats, number 51 Liliana Johnson," the Bobcat Field public address announcer announced.
A few weeks later, Snoop would go on to record an assist in the Cal Pac opener against La Sierra and she finished the season as one of five freshman to play in at least 15 games that year.
Things were going good. Snoop made the Chancellor's List as a freshman. Heck, DuChateau even granted Johnson's wish to be No. 51. In many college athletic departments, jersey numbers just run from 00-32, for example. But wearing your number is all part of the experience, so DuChateau made sure Johnson had the number she wanted.
Snoop would wear #51 all four years.
"My favorite movie is Cars and I really liked Doc Hudson. My dad and I would always quote old Doc quotes and then one day he told me that I should just make that my number," she said, referencing Doc's race number is #51 in the 2006 Disney·Pixar feature film.
"I'm really grateful Roman let me keep that through the four years. I have it tattooed on me now. It's a reminder to keep going."
Snoop's sophomore year in 2023 was the program's first ever California Pacific Conference Tournament Championship, a 2-1 win over then rival and 14th-ranked Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She contributed to a first half shutout before hoisting the trophy on Bobcat Field.
Arguably, Snoop and the Bobcats biggest statement came a year later in a 3-0 win over fourth-seeded and sixth-ranked Campbellsville in the NAIA Round of 16.
How did the Bobcats get to the Round of 16? As fate had it, the Bobcats got a first round bye in the national tournament and then got matched up with No. 15 Embry-Riddle in the NAIA Second Round in Prescott., Ariz. The Bobcats hadn't beaten Embry-Riddle on the road in eight tries dating back to 2013 and this was the rematch of the 2023 Cal Pac title game that was played on Bobcat Field. It was also widely known that it may be the last time the two teams would ever play each other because the Bobcats were transitioning to NCAA Division II the following year. A Yareli Hernandez goal in the 20th minute proved to be enough in a 1-0 UC Merced win, with Alicia Lepe recording a shutout. Snoop and the Bobcats danced into the Round of 16, punching their ticket to the NAIA final site in Pensacola, Fla.
The day after Thanksgiving in 2024, the Bobcats traveled to the Sunshine State and arrived to their beachfront hotel late in the evening, just over 48 hours before the big game.
"The whole experience brought us closer. You knew everyone on the team before, but you didn't hang out with them every single day. We got to the hotel and were hanging out with people that we never thought we would be best friends with. I got to see a new side and gain new respect for people, which was really rewarding and eye-opening," Johnson said.
It was time to play the Campbellsville Tigers at the Ashton Brosnaham Soccer Complex on December 2.
"We were all nervous that game because we were facing a top five team in the country. But then we realized we had nothing to lose. We had made it that far already. We should already be proud of ourselves," Johnson said.
Johnson took the pitch in the 19th minute with UC Merced leading 1-0. Playing another game in the national tournament was already big time for a girl from Ballico, a town of just 347 people. She made the most of her opportunity, notably in the 32nd minute.
"I remember this ball bouncing and thinking to myself that I could beat this girl in a foot race. I took off after the ball and then had a one-on-one with the keeper."
Giulia Salemme was the Bobcat that played the ball over the top of the defense to Snoop. Snoop raced in and took one touch into to the top of the 18-yard box.
"I was thinking to myself, if I miss this, this will be embarrassing."
Johnson, whose primary role on the pitch as a center midfielder was to control possession and link the defense with the offense, hadn't taken a shot all year. Though, she was plenty capable of scoring.
"I hit it into the back of the net, and I turn around and everyone is running at me," Snoop recalls about her first career goal that gave the Bobcats a 2-0 lead. "I was like wait, did that go in? It became a bigger joke after the match that I didn't celebrate. I told my teammates that I had no idea, and that I had to convince myself that it went in."
Her phone had blown up while she was playing.
"My past coaches were texting me congratulations and everyone was making it a big deal. I was still in shock the next day. I scored in the national tournament. It was pretty crazy."
"I don't know if I've ever been happier to see someone score," teammate Kacey Rodriguez recently said on UC Merced's Life as a Bobcat podcast when asked about the Round of 16 game.
Snoop's goal came in the middle of two Hernandez goals on that historic day. Lepe earned another shutout in the 3-0 win.
The Bobcats were one of the NAIA's final eight teams dancing and had become UC Merced's first ever team across all sports to make it to the NAIA Quarterfinals. The Bobcats were also the Cal Pac's first ever women's soccer squad in the quarterfinals.
Despite falling to #5/#10 College of Idaho three days later, Johnson will always remember what happened next.
"Our Executive Director of Athletics Dave Dunham was in our locker room after the match telling us how proud he was and how we had made the whole school proud. Then on the bus ride back from the airport, we were told there was going to be a welcome home."
Johnson and the team wasn't sure if anyone would be there.
"There were a quite a few people out there when we got back. It was so cool. It was such a good feeling."
Having success in the national tournament was a key moment for women's soccer in the Central Valley. Regardless of level, UC Merced was the first four-year collegiate women's soccer program in the Central Valley to win multiple national tournament games since Stanislaus State in 2014. More than half of the Bobcats roster was made up of Central Valley natives.
"We made a statement. Look at what the Central Valley can produce. We made it to the top eight of national tournament. So it's pretty cool," Snoop said.
Among the local talent on the Bobcats roster with Snoop in 2024 were Kacey Rodriguez, Hannah DeLay, and Macy Max. The four played together for San Juan South in high school, a time Johnson recalls being so pivotal in continuing to play soccer. She almost quit playing soccer after her freshman year of high school. Her mom talked her out of it. Good thing, because what followed were the best years of soccer of her life.
"That was my I can't stop here moment," Johnson recalls of her later years with San Juan South.
A new challenge awaited the Bobcats after their deep national tournament run. Johnson's senior year, the 2025 season, marked a new era of Bobcat Athletics. It was time to begin NCAA Division II and CCAA competition.
Snoop averaged 30 minutes a match across the Bobcats season-opening six-match unbeaten streak in nonconference play, including playing 48 minutes in the NCAA Division II celebration game and shutout against Simon Fraser in front of over 1,200 fans at Bobcat Field.
She then averaged nine minutes over the first seven CCAA contests and admitted she fell into a slump and didn't know how she was going to get herself out of it.
"For me personally, it was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. I'm on the smaller side of a player and the CCAA is a big body conference, and they just had a different mentality than I thought. It was as if they wanted to kill you for the ball. It was eye opening and tough at first."
Things weren't necessarily going the Bobcats way either in the stretch. Her career was running out with only four games left on the schedule.
She leaned on family, and her friends that were like family, to get out of the slump.
"I sat down with my family one day and they reminded me that this is my last year and to make the most out of it," Johnson said. "I just switched everything up after that. Assistant coach Anthoni Martin would always don't be a victim. I thought what was I doing to myself? Something flipped in my head and then it was Senior Day against Chico State."
Snoop's parents, brothers, sister-in-law, and grandparents walked her out onto Bobcat Field on that beautiful Senior Day afternoon in October. She comes from a Portuguese family of five and is a middle child with an older and a younger brother. She is extremely grateful for her support system.
"For them to come out to almost every single game, whether I was on the field or not, helped me a lot."
Johnson played a season-high 63 minutes against Chico State and registered her first point in CCAA play with an assist to now professional soccer player Trinidad Quiroz.
"I'm having fun again," Johnson remembered.
Snoop played nearly half the match next time out and contributed to a shutout against the eventual CCAA Tournament Champion Cal Poly Humboldt.
A road trip to Cal State San Marcos was followed by one final match against Stanislaus State.
"I was sad at the end of the season. We played Stan State one day and that was the end of it. It all came to an end so fast," Snoop said.
All good things must come to an end. Johnson will always be a part of the history books for what she gave to UC Merced, and she will always have people in her corner to cherish those memories with.
"My biggest blessing overall throughout my time here is meeting people that I didn't think would be in my life forever. And now they are. They'll be at my wedding one day. They will be aunts and uncles because we grew so close. It's a big community and a big family," Snoop said.
With college soccer done, Snoop will try to stay around the game by playing indoor soccer in Turlock and potentially falling in love with Portuguese professional teams by watching powerhouses like Benfica and Porto whether it is at Casa Dos Açores in Hilmar or somewhere else. Casa Dos Açores is a place that the Portuguese Community across the region gathers for cultural, social, and recreational opportunities. Her grandfather, Manuel Vieira is the Vice President of the organization, and the organization recently broke ground on a brand new building in Hilmar. Her grandfather, who is from the Azores, also founded Acoreano Sport, a local soccer team in the United Premier Soccer League, US Soccer's 4th Division.
Or maybe she will return to volunteer at the UC Merced Youth Soccer Camps, led by UC Merced head men's soccer coach Albert Martins. UC Merced men's and women's soccer student-athletes have always loved spending time in the summer with the kids.
"That was one of the most fun community involvements I've ever had. I loved playing with the kids and seeing them giggle and just have fun. You never know who you are inspiring," Johnson said. "Maybe they look up to you, maybe they don't. You grow close with them over the few days. It is really rewarding."
As for Johnson's future as a whole, she is leaning towards joining the police academy and doing some field work.
"If I don't like it, I have that biology degree. I do want to go back and do forensic biology, so I can do crime scene investigation and all that. That would be really cool."
Snoop can do whatever she puts her mind too.
Just keep going, #51.
