Duke women’s soccer signs Kati Druzina on transfer from Notre Dame

DURHAM – Duke women’s soccer head coach Robbie Church announced the addition of Notre Dame midfielder/defender Kati Druzina to the 2023 roster.

Druzina, a 5-6 product of Kirtland, Ohio, appeared in 54 matches and started 49 of those contests over the last three years at Notre Dame.  She started all 45 matches she competed in the last two seasons, while collecting eight assists and appearing in 2,741 minutes.

“We’re really excited to have Kati join our soccer family,” said Church.  “She is going to continue her education as a graduate student in our MMS program at Fuqua.  When she visited our campus, our players, coaches and staff really thought she would be a great, great fit here at Duke.  She is coming off a distinguished career at Notre Dame and has a skill set that will fit in well with the way we like to play.  One of the things we liked about Kati was her versatility as she will be able to play a number of different positions for us.”

Over the last two seasons, Druzina led Notre Dame to 31 wins, a trip to the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals and NCAA Tournament final 16.

“We’ve had a lot of turnover in our roster with losing a big graduating class and then with Michelle [Cooper] turning professional,” said Church.  “We have a number of freshmen coming in so it will be nice to bring in an experienced player like Kati, who has been through the rigors of the ACC regular season and the NCAA Tournament.  Kati is very professional in everything she does, so we think she’ll be a great addition to our program.”

At Lake Catholic High School, Druzina was the 2017 News Herald Player of the Year and guided her squad to its first state finals in school history.  She was a three-time First-Team All-Region honoree during her time at Lake Catholic.  She competed for the Cleveland Ambassadors club team and was a two-time club state cup winner, while becoming the youngest goal scorer for Cleveland’s WPSL team.

Druzina will graduate from Notre Dame in May with a degree in business analytics.