National signing day: Tri-State products commit to a bevy of blue-chip programs
Players across the Tri-State area made their commitments to play college soccer this week, as Wednesday’s national signing day kicked off the signing period for the sport.
That period goes until August 1, but there was a flurry of activity on national signing day itself, with boys and girls throughout the region signing National Letters of Intent and making verbal commitments to programs across the country.
+READ: How to be intentional with your college commitment
The New York Red Bulls announced that 23 of their graduating senior class from their U.S. Soccer Development Academy side will play college soccer, with a number staying in the Tri-State region. Henry Martin will join Princeton and Matt McCarthy will join Cornell, while Conrad Nowowiejski and Samad Bounthong take their talents to Binghamton and NYU respectively.
Georgetown University’s strong connection with the Red Bulls academy continues as Ethan Lochner and Kyled Zajec have committed to the Hoyas, while Malcolm Dixon, Derrick Etienne and Wes Wade join reigning College Cup champions Virginia.
Also in the USSDA, Players Development Academy have 15 of their class of 2015 set to play college soccer. Of those, six stay in the Tri-State region, with Max Lurie and Justin O’Brien joining Dartmouth, Chris Gomez joining Syracuse, Elgin Grant due to attend Manhattan College, Brian Hawkins to attend Rutgers and Moyinoluwa Opeyemi to attend Princeton. In addition, Jack Casey will join 2013 national champions Notre Dame, while both Scott Forbes and Eric Swenson join Pennsylvania in the Ivy League.
On the girls’ side, 14 of PDA’s oldest players will play college soccer, with Erin Trapp and Kristy Cotter both joining Columbia. Leah Becker joins another Ivy League school as she commits to play for Princeton, while Gianna Bustamante and Carsen Cochran will be teammates together at Colgate. Montana Sutton will head south to join national runners-up Virginia.
BW Gottschee have nine boys from their USSDA team set to commence college soccer in the fall, while the Albertson Fury of the ECNL have 24 girls committed to play the sport at the college level, including Keri Cavallo, who will go to Yale, Columbia commit Reilly Lucas and Camille Kelton, who will join the University of Miami.
Albertson’s NPL girls team also has four commits for college soccer this fall: Corinna Ferrante, who will attend Mercy College; Rachel Chernet, who will join Vassar University; Caroline Nealon, who has committed to Desales University; and Leanne Shinnick, who will join SUNY Oswego.
+READ: Over 900 ECNL players commit to Division I programs for 2015
Nineteen girls from Match Fit Academy’s ECNL side have committed to play college soccer, including NSCAA National High School Player of the Year Bridgette Andrzejewski, who will attend perennial powerhouse North Carolina. She will be joined at UNC by Match Fit teammate Julia Ashley, while Hana Kerner will join national runners-up Virginia and two others — Amanda Carolan, Alyssa Cronin — join Georgetown.
From Connecticut FC in ECNL, 13 players will play at the college level, while East Meadow will send 16 and FSA will send 19. In the USSDA, NJCSA has six commits to college soccer, including Sean McSherry, who will join Princeton, and Dylan Greenblatt, who has committed to American University.
There are still just under six months to go in the national signing period for college soccer, so there is likely to be plenty more movement in the future as more players commit to playing at the next level. Already though, college rosters are starting to take shape, and players can look forward to starting the next phase of their time in the sport.
+ SoccerWire.com’s list of 2015 National Letter of Intent commitments
