Eleven charms dangle from the bracelet on Ashleigh Williams' left wrist.

There are pendants of a horse and cowboy boots. A coffee cup and maracas. A taco truck and a chip being dipped in queso. A heart with a bow through it and the word "Y'all."

Each is important to Williams for different reasons. They paint the picture of the individual the Allen native is when she's not on the pitch for the Texas Tech soccer team, assuming the role of one of the top goal scorers in the country for one of the hottest teams.

Soccer is vital to Williams, to be sure. It's just not all she is.

"I feel like athletes have a hard time struggling at finding their identity outside of their sport," Williams said, "when they're so much more outside. You're not just soccer. You're more than just soccer."

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Williams has spent her life forming into a well-rounded individual, shaped by a mother who taught her to be strong and comfortable in her own skin, an independent person able to be herself in any situation.

The junior's identity isn't any one thing in particular. And that's allowed her to embrace the spotlight that's come with the Red Raiders' success.

Stacking up

Texas Tech coach Tom Stone has seen plenty in his 17 years leading the Red Raiders. He won't allow himself to compare this year's team to groups of the past just yet. It's too early for that.

Luckily, he has the program record book to do the talking for him.

Williams got off to a hot start and hasn't slowed down. She's already set career-highs in goals (12) and points (28), which moves her closer to the Tech single-season records of 18 and 39, respectively. The 5-foot-7 forward also ranks fifth in both categories for her career.

She entered the week fourth in the nation in goals and sixth in points.

This comes with Williams' role changing. Stone brought in multiple high-scoring forwards to push Williams as Tech's leader on the front line. She took that as a challenge.

"I'm always like, 'This is my team,'" Williams said, "but it's all of our team. We all have the same goal. We want to win. We want to compete and just play our best every game."

Those additions, Stone said, have proved beneficial for Williams. Defenses haven't been able to key on the third-year veteran as much with the likes of Alex Kerr posing an equal scoring threat. That, in turn, has opened up Williams more to be who the Red Raiders need her to be.

"The spotlight has been on Ashleigh, and she's responded to it extremely well," Stone said. "I actually think she likes it. She likes pressure, but her responsibility has not gotten bigger. It's actually gotten smaller because she can really focus on being the box goal-scorer that we need."

Her teammates have also noticed a different version of Williams, one even more focused and confident. Williams has earned two Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week awards and was twice the national player of the week.

"I would describe her as dominant," senior defender Hannah Anderson said. "She's been obviously producing in the past, but this year, she is so dominant. Holding up the ball is her strength. Obviously, she's a goal-scoring machine too. I just feel like she's dominating the field and getting more and more comfortable about what she's doing."

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Back on the horse

Whenever her soccer career comes to an end — she hopes to play well beyond college — Williams already has her next venture in mind.

Growing up in the Dallas suburbs, Williams wasn't around much farmland. But when she watched the movie "Secretariat," she became enamored with horses — how they moved and worked. It led her to major in animal science with a concentration in equine production.

To pursue her passion, Williams asked her professors to get her more involved with horses. This summer, she took a horse-riding course.

"Horses, yeah, I didn't grow up around it," Williams said, "but I want to be just as good as someone who's grown up with it and just better than someone who's been in it because that's just me. I want to be good at what I do."

A self-admitted people-pleaser, Williams has achieved that on the pitch. The 14th-ranked Red Raiders (10-0-2) enter Sunday's home match against Cincinnati as one of six unbeaten teams in the top 25. It's the best 12-match start to a season in Tech history.

To Williams, it's a start.

"This team is so dedicated and they want to win," Williams said. "They want to compete. A tie for us is a loss. Seeing that and seeing how the team reacts to just a tie is really motivating because we're like, we don't want that to happen.

"It's just the environment. We're just thriving right now. We're just competing to work towards our end goal."

BIG 12 SOCCER

No. 14 Texas Tech vs. Cincinnati

When: 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: John Walker Soccer Complex

Records: Texas Tech 10-0-2, 4-0; Cincinnati 2-5-4, 1-1-2

Need to know: Texas Tech's Ashleigh Williams entered the week fourth in goals and sixth in points nationally.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Ashleigh Williams taking center stage in Texas Tech soccer's historic start to 2023 season