Stanford club alums making waves in college season

It has been a great season so far for Stanford club alums playing for colleges around the country.

Stanford senior Kelly Eaton (M-A) is this week’s MPSF Player of the Week. Pallavi Menon (Sacred Heart Prep) earned the same honor earlier in the season. Kim Krueger (Menlo) and Vee Dunlevie (Sacred Heart Prep) have also played a key role in Stanford’s 16-1 start. All four helped Stanford sweep the 20-under Nationals and Senior National titles in the summer. Kelly, Pallavi and Vee were all Speedo Cup participants in middle school.

Other MPSF teams also feature club alums: Remy Champion (Paly) at Cal, Megan Burmeister (Menlo), Camy Sullivan (Menlo) and MJ Mordell (Sacred Heart Prep) at UCLA,  and Consi Hiller (Woodside Priory) at USC.

In the Big West are Lizzie Rouleau (St Francis), Ruth Milne (Woodside) and Katie Zakula (Notre Dame Belmont) at UCSB and Nicole Plihal (Amador Valley) and Courtney Elward (St Francis) at Long Beach State. The WWPA has Santa Clara Broncos Wren White (Presentation), Laura Espinosa (Mountain View), Ali Norris (Saratoga) and Whitney Allen (Menlo) and LMU Lions Elise Ponce (Menlo) and Kimberly Benedetti (St Francis).

Last weekend at the Elite Eight tournament at Indiana, Kandis Canonica (St. Ignatius) broke the Bucknell record for career assists. Kandis was the CWPA Southern Division Co-Player of the Week in February. Bucknell teammates Hallie Kennan, recently named CWPA Southern Division Player of the Week, and Tara Murao, both Paly grads, combined for five goals in a 13-12 loss to Harvard. On the winning side for the Crimson were fellow Paly teammates Lizzie Abbott, Natasha Whitney and Roxanne Pinto.

Indiana’s defense was led by goalie Cassie Wyckoff (Los Altos) who was named CWPA Defensive Player of the Week. It was her second time earning the honor this season. Sister Lauren Wyckoff scored a key goal in a narrow loss to Michigan. Jenna Roe (Presentation) is also on the Hoosier team.

Brown features three club alums: Rita Bullwinkel (M-A), Kat Booher (Castillieja) and Brittany Westerman (Menlo). Kat was recently honored as the CWPA Northern Division Rookie of the Week.

Four more players from our club are playing at Princeton: tri-captain Phoebe Champion (Paly), Tanya Wilcox (Paly) and Cayley Bowles (Menlo) and Laura Martinez (Castilleja). Phoebe, Tanya and Cayley helped Stanford to medal finishes at national championships including the Speedo Cup when they were in middle school.

A pair of St Francis grads round out the Stanford crew at the Elite Eight. Roxanne Mansfield and Natalie Naruns have contributed to the Wolverines’ fast start as the top team in the East.

And finally, in the fall, our own 14-under coach Kendall Preston was the Conference and Northern California Player of the Year, leading Foothill College to the state tournament.

Congrats everyone! Keep up the great work!