7 of the Top Prospects for the 2022 NWSL College Draft
With the NWSL Final quickly approaching and the season coming to an end soon, the focus shifts to the NWSL draft. The 2022 NWSL college draft is set to take place on Saturday, December 18, at 2 p.m. ET in Los Angeles. This year’s draft class has the potential to be a stacked group of players entering into the league–players who could be stars for years to come. We look at seven of those potential draft picks.
Jaelin Howell – Florida State
If Howell chooses to play professionally and enters the NWSL college draft, she could be the number one pick. The midfielder has been a star at Florida State, earning many accolades in her four years. She’s been named ACC Midfielder of the Year twice, and she was the 2020-21 MAC Hermann Trophy winner.
With the Seminoles, she’s appeared in 85 games, all but four have been starts, and she has tallied 13 goals and 12 assists.
Naomi Girma – Stanford
In terms of defense, it doesn’t get much better than Girma in college soccer right now. San Diego will have a tough choice, with Girma and Howell being terrific options for the first pick.
Girma has been the leader of a highly organized Stanford backline, helping to lead them to win the National Championship in 2019. She recently earned her second Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year award, and in 2020 was the U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year. She’s started 67 games for the Cardinals in her career as the leader of the backline. She’s also tallied eight goals and five assists.
Mia Fishel – UCLA
Fishel is a terrific goal scorer and has been great at UCLA. As a freshman, she scored a team-high 14 goals for the Bruins. During the 2021 season, she has scored 12 goals and tallied five assists in 19 games. While she is young, she’s got a ton of talent and could haunt defenses all over the league for a long time.
Penelope Hocking – USC
Another terrific goal scorer is Hocking, who has been a force in the Pac-12. She’s currently USC’s all-time leading goal scorer with 53 goals in her career. She also has 22 assists to her name. This season she earned Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. The forward has 11 goals for the Trojans this season, helping to lead them to a 14-3-2 record.
Alexa Spaanstra – Virginia
Spaanstra is a player that gets overlooked sometimes, but she’s been a key piece to this Virginia team. The forward is a player who’s great at converting chances but also at setting up her teammates. In her career as a Cavalier, she has 29 goals and 28 assists. She’s a leader on this Virginia team that has a great shot at winning the national championship.
Emily Madril – Florida State
Madril is a player who has struggled with injuries and is coming off of back-to-back ACL tears. However, even with the injury setbacks, she’s one of the best center-backs in the country. She was also named the 2021 ACC Defender of the Year. In her career with the Seminoles, she played 4,969 minutes on a very good Florida State backline.
Julia Grosso – Texas
Grosso has lots of international experience with Canada, including helping Canada win Gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She’s a player that can excel at most positions in the midfield. She played in 42 games for Texas, scoring 15 goals and registering 12 assists. With her international experience, she’s a player who could come in and strengthen the midfield of most teams.
Featured image via @uclawsoccer on Instagram
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