There are few people, if any, who can say that they took on Marshawn Lynch and Justin Forsett, one on one, and made them look silly.

Cal women's soccer co-captain Nkechi Kanu beat the one-time Bears backfield mates in the type of football that was a little less familiar to her opponents.

But even without the ball, Kanu has managed to get herself into competition with some of Cal's best.

She even raced Zack Follett.

"Zack Follett cheated," she says. "He took off before me. There are witnesses. It was very, very close, but I maintain that he got a head start."

Picture Kanu, who stands at a self-proclaimed 5-foot-2 and three-quarter inches tall, being dead serious about a rematch against Cal's 6-foot-1, 230-pound linebacker, who has been clocked around 4.7 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

There is no scheduled race with Jahvid Best quite yet, but the senior is looking to fill her upcoming schedule.

"I think I could defend Jahvid; he can shake and bake, but I could definitely take him in a little game of soccer," Kanu says only half-jokingly. "I would like to issue a formal challenge to all male athletes at Cal, who think that they can take me one-on-one in soccer."

Despite the bold challenge, the speedy defender swears that she doesn't have the mouth for trash-talking.

"Earlier on in my Cal career, I got into it with this girl from another team, but I messed up my line and said, 'That's why you go to Cal and we go to Berkeley,'" she says. "And that was the last time I ever tried to trash talk."

Luckily for Kanu, she has always had raw ability to fall back on. For those who have attended a Cal game, it should come as no surprise that Kanu was a decorated high school track athlete.

Kanu, whose first name means "God's blessing" in Igbo, won so many league, state and club titles in both track and soccer that she has forgotten the specifics, like events and years.

"It all kind of blends together," the 100-meter, 200m and 4X100m Northern Coast Section high school champion says. "I just never had enough time to practice to be really good."

Through all of her athletic achievements, Kanu has maintained a constant pursuit of perfection. And if she were ever to reach that point, she would probably bypass it in an effort to improve.

Despite receiving A's throughout her schooling and being recruited by a slew of Division I schools, the senior feels she doesn't do justice to her first or last name.

"I feel like I'm the black sheep of the family," she says. "Yeah, I go to Cal and it's a great school, but when my older brother went to Columbia and my sister went to Duke, it's hard not to say that I am a black sheep."

It is this mentality that has pushed Kanu into being the near unbeatable defender that she is today.

But as quick as she is, her time at Cal has seemed even faster.

"I don't know where all the time went," Kanu says. "You just get yourself into this routine of practices, games and school on an everyday basis and you lose track of time."

Her freshman year consisted of six games. With only a month left in the season, then-Bears' coach Kevin Boyd lured Kanu out of her redshirt standing with the promise of significant playing time, which she never received.

"If I could get that year back, I would take it," Kanu says. "But I don't know if my body could hold up another season."

The senior has started all but two games since that short season and the physical toll has started to show.

"I sprained my ankle, had a fluid sac burst in my knee, pulled my calf muscle and my piriformis, and somehow misaligned my hips during a fall," Kanu says. "I'm 20 years old, but when I get out of bed in the morning, I feel like an 80-year-old woman."

But although Kanu may be physically deteriorating, she does not accept the idea that her last game in a Cal uniform could come as early as Saturday at the Bay Area Derby against No. 6 Stanford.

"There is a real possibility that we are not going to make the (NCAA) tournament if we don't win this game," Kanu says. "I have given everything to this program and it will be bittersweet to go. But I am not going out with a loss and definitely not to Stanford."

And as history has shown, when Kanu talks herself into a challenge, she is left with only one option-to win.

Tags: CAL WOMEN'S SOCCER, NKECHI KANU, NEIL MCGUIRE