Seeing Double: Frazier Twins Bring Double Dose of Talent and Fun to Viking Soccer Program

Sophomore defender Liv Frazier remembers distinctly being given a yellow card during a club match during her sophomore year at Grant High School. 

She was protesting the foul because it actually had been committed by her twin sister midfielder/forward Elle Frazier.

“Elle committed a foul and the ref looked at me and blew the whistle,” Liv recalls. That made her angry and she raised her voice to protest, perhaps a little louder than was prudent, earning a yellow card. The foul and the yellow card stuck.

Being identical twins has its disadvantages as well as its advantages, said Elle and Liv Frazier, the latest pair of identical twins on the PSU women’s soccer team.

The disadvantage to being a twin is the constant comparison, said Elle. “We both have our talents, but sometimes it feels like people focus on the thing you’re not good at,” she said. 

According to Liv, “twins, especially identical twins, are always going to be compared and grouped, which I think can be harder than if we were on separate teams.” 

And, that can lead to a natural sibling rivalry which can come with an edge when you’re an identical twin.

“We are definitely competitive with each other. We don’t want to lose to each other, so it makes us work harder. I also think that as we’ve grown, we have learned how to compete in a way that makes both of us better. We push each other and continue to support each other’s success,” said Elle.

That competition can lead to wrong assumptions, said Liv. “We’re competitive with each other, but it’s gotten a lot less personal as we’ve gotten older. A lot of people assume we get jealous of each other which is not the case. At the end of the day, we are best friends and want to see each other succeed."

While the minuses are there, there are more pluses to being identical twins, agreed the pair…”You always have a friend. For soccer, this is especially helpful since we can train together. It is never boring,” said Elle.

Liv agreed. “You always have someone to train with. Training alone can be fun, but it definitely is more fun when you are with somebody. We always have somebody, and we are best friends. We also had a training buddy growing up. This was especially helpful during the pandemic.”

And, being identical twins can be amusing.

“A special challenge is that no one can tell us apart. We learned early on in our careers to respond to two names. We think some people call us the wrong name on purpose at this point. The shock on the other team and the referees’ faces when they realize there are two of us…we often get told halfway through the game that they just thought one of us was everywhere or they were seeing things,” said Liv.

Liv and Elle Frazier are the third set of identical twins to play for the Vikings. And, associate head coach Maureen Whitney, who recruited them to PSU, said it took her more than a year to figure out who was who, and it’s been amusing to her watching others struggle to get them straight.

“I’d typically try to put them in different cleats as an easy identifier, but for a little extra fun this year, I kept them in the same style and color cleat which made it even harder for Kate (Head Coach Katie Burton) to figure it out,” Whitney said.

She wasn’t so sure about the twins’ competitiveness having abated as much as they’d like to make out. “Any time we have twins, we end up yelling “EASY!” in drills when they’re on opposite teams and have to go against each other. It becomes a win at all costs situation and sometimes we keep them on the same team to prevent those situations.”

The Frazier twins caught Whitney’s eye as freshmen at Grant High School.

“I thought I might be biased because I had just coached twins Tasi and Tea Poore. I found myself laughing because they were so unbelievably competitive and focused. I want to say they kind of swept me off my feet with their playing abilities and passion. I was confident with them as players and people,” Whitney said.

That interest might have been helped along by their contributions to their high school and club teams.

They played in five club state championships, winning three, were co-captains of Grant’s first ever 6A championship, earning first time all-league and all-state honors along the way. And, their club team won the Surf Cup during their junior year at Grant.

And that Surf Cup win is what they believe brought them to the attention of other university coaches.

“Our window opened in the middle of the pandemic. We talked to a lot of schools. Some wanted my sister. Some wanted me. But, we decided we wanted to play in college together,” Liv said.

They also really liked the idea of playing close to home which limited their interest to Pacific Northwest schools. They did draw interest from Big Sky and some Division II schools. But, they committed to PSU early in the process, about a month after the Surf Cup championship, because they liked the idea of playing where their family and friends had easy access to their matches.

Elle and Liv come from a soccer family. Their dad, Andrew, played soccer collegiately at Willamette University and currently coaches club and high school teams. He was their coach when their club team won the state championship.

Their twin paths in soccer diverged significantly during their freshman year as Vikings. Liv arrived with some leg issues that required surgery on both calves at Stanford University Medical Center, costing her most of the first year of her college career. She took it well and impressed coaches with her determination to recover and return. They’re expecting great things from her next season. 

Elle ultimately became a starter. “Elle’s work rate and focus were among the best at our level. Her challenge was to figure out how to defeat defenders and score at this level. At this level everyone is bigger, stronger, faster and more tactically advanced. Elle applied what she knew and battled. She averaged 69 minutes a game as a freshman and became one of our top four scorers,” said Whitney.

“These two have engines that allow them to go forever. They both graduated from high school to join us early in the spring of 22 along with Erin Marynik and Makena Speer. Elle smashed our fitness test, not only beating all her teammates, but beating every PSU soccer player who has run the test during our six years here. They train hard to cover ground, have a champion’s mindset and come from a great family,” she said.

Whitney also said she was drawn to their academic abilities, and both have been on the president’s list three times as business majors minoring in secondary education.

As to the future, Whitney and Burton think the sky’s the limit.

“They have both shown they have strength in leading by example. We expect their knowledge of leadership to expand in the next couple of years, increasing their impact and contribution to the team. We appreciate their standard of excellence” and their playful senses of humor.

Whitney described them as “little pranksters (who) like to play tricks on people by switching places. They can juggle way more times than I can count…check out their YouTube videos…they juggle an orange over hurdles and do twin tricks…”

And, they are just getting started.