Washington Spirit take midfielder who helped Cardinal win championship
The Washington Spirit selected midfielder Andi Sullivan out of Stanford with the first pick in the National Women’s Soccer League draft on Thursday.
Stanford won the NCAA College Cup championship last season. Sullivan scored in the 3-2 Cardinal victory against UCLA. She also won the Mac Hermann Trophy awarded to the nation’s best soccer player.
Sullivan has made seven appearances with the U. S. national team and has been called into January training camp as the team begins to prepare for World Cup qualifying in the fall.
Sullivan is a native of Lorton, Va., and played youth soccer in Bethesda, Md.
“I was kind of hoping to be picked first. I mean, you don’t really know. There are a lot of good players in the draft,” Sullivan said Wednesday night after the Spirit confirmed they would select her with the first pick. “Today was kind of the first real moment of taking pictures with the jersey and stuff like that. It was like, ‘Oh this is actually happening.’ Pretty cool.”
The Spirit also had the third overall pick, which they used to select midfielder Rebecca Quinn out of Duke.
The Boston Breakers took forward Savannah McCaskill out of South Carolina with the No. 2 overall pick.
The day also featured a number of high-profile trades, including a deal between the Reign and the Royals that sent midfielder Diana Matheson to Utah in exchange for veteran defender Yael Averbuch.
1. Washington, Andi Sullivan, Stanford
2. Boston, Savannah McCaskill, South Carolina
3. Washington (from Chicago through Houston), Rebecca Quinn, Duke
4. Sky Blue FC (from Utah), Michaela Abam, West Virginia
5. Sky Blue FC, Imani Dorsey, Duke
6. Sky Blue FC (from Houston through Chicago), Amandine Pierre-Louis, West Virginia
7. Houston (from Chicago), Haley Hanson, Nebraska
8. Portland, Sandra Yu, Notre Dame
9. Portland, Gabby Seiler, Florida
10. North Carolina, Frannie Crouse, Penn State
Round 2
11. Washington, Schuyler DeBree, Duke
12. Houston, Kimberly Keever, Washington
13. Sky Blue FC (from Chicago), Casey Murphy, Rutgers
14. Utah, Taylor Isom, BYU
15. Chicago (from Sky Blue), Emily Boyd, California
16. Washington, Mallory Eubanks, Mississippi State
17. Boston, Elizabeth Wenger, Georgetown
18. Chicago, Indigo Gibson, California
19. Chicago, Brianna Visalli, Pepperdine
20. North Carolina, Rebecca Rasmussen, Colorado
Round 3
21. Washington, Brittany Basinger, Penn State
22. Boston, Ashton Miller, Duke
23. Orlando, Nadia Gomes, BYU
24. Chicago (from Houston), Megan Buckingham, North Carolina
25. Seattle (from Utah), Allyson Haran, Wake Forest
26. Washington, Maddie Huster, Wake Forest
27. Chicago, Zoey Goralski UCLA
28. Houston, Veronica Latsko, Virginia
29. Portland (from Chicago), Annabella Geist, Oregon State
30. Houston, Abby Elinsky, North Carolina
Round 4
31. Washington, Rachel Moore, William & Mary
32. Boston, Joanna Boyles, North Carolina
33. Houston, Sarah Shimer, Washington
34. Utah, EJ Proctor, Duke
35. Sky Blue FC, Kiana Palacios, UC Irvine
36. Seattle, Celia Jiménez Delgado, Alabama
37. Chicago, Alexa Ben, DePaul
38. North Carolina, Morgan Reid, Duke
39. North Carolina, Carlin Hudson, Yale
40. North Carolina, Ryan Williams, TCU
