Oct. 21, 2011

By Matt Muzza
Navy Sports Information

The Navy women's soccer program has always prided itself on recruiting players from all over the United States. In just 19 seasons as a varsity program, Navy has already seen 36 different states represented on its rosters over the years.

States such as Florida, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia and have usually been some of the better represented areas, but the 2011 squad has put a new state on the map, and one that is nearly 3,000 miles away: Washington.

Senior defender Kate Herren, junior defender Kelsey Learned and sophomore forward Hannah Morse all hail from Auburn, Wash., a suburb just south of Seattle. Sophomore starting goalkeeper Alexes Lopez-Shaw is from Bothell, which is also a part of the Seattle metropolitan area. Additionally, freshman forward Sam Lee is from Richland, a city that is about three-and-a-half hours southeast of Seattle.

Head coach Carin Gabarra and associate head coach Rob Blanck do not focus solely on one region or state to attract players, but instead recruit nationally. However, Gabarra has seen the shift of the makeup of a roster from year to year during her tenure and has seen representation from different areas rise and fall.

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