Minnesota Ties Present Nationally Despite Gophers’ Rare Absence from 2011 NCAA D1 Tournament Field

Kassey Kallman

In total 9 players tied to Minnesota will compete in the 2011 NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament. Leading the way is Florida State sophomore defender and Woodbury, Minn. native Kassey Kallman.

Kallman, Minnesota’s Ms. Soccer in 2009, has started in all 43 games of her college career, playing a team-leading 2022 minutes while garnering All-ACC and All-American Honors in 2010 along with repeated call-ups to the US U20 National Team. Most often featured at left back, she also spent time at center back earlier this year as FSU experimented with different formations before settling on their current 4-2-3-1 system that values possession/building up style of play with outside backs pushing high into the attack.

Strong defending runs deep in the Kallman family with older brothers Brian winning the 2011 NASL Championship as a center back for the NSC Minnesota Stars and Brent featured as a junior center back for the #3 ranked Creighton Blue Jays. Kassey’s sisters, Kylie and Krystle were both standout defenders for the Gophers and recognized for their accomplishments by the Gophers, the Big Ten and the NCAA with many honors awarded.

Kallman helps lock down a Seminole back line that won the ACC Championship this past weekend in Cary, NC as the #14 ranked Seminoles (14-6-1) knocked off #11 North Carolina, #5 Virginia, and #9 Wake Forest in impressive fashion. The final went to a shootout with Seminole goalkeeper Kelsey Wys denying three of the Demon Deacon shooters enroute to the victory. Three ACC schools including Florida State (Wake Forest & Duke) earned #1 seeds for the NCAAs with 9 of the 11 conference schools getting a bid.

More Minnesota Ties to the 2011 NCAA D1 Women’s Tournament:
Harvard University – Lauren Urke – freshman midfielder (Medina, Minn. -Wayzata HS)
Illinois State University – Kelly Rosenthal – junior forward (Brainerd, Minn. – Brainerd HS)
UCLA – Chelsea Cline – junior midfielder (Des Moines, IA – Shattuck-St. Mary’s)
University of Dayton – Jordin Melchert – sophomore goalkeeper (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. – Simley HS)
University of Louisville – Kassie Young – senior goalkeeper (Lakeville, Minn. – Lakeville HS)
University of San Diego – Olivia Schultz – freshman midfielder (Minneapolis, Minn. – Academy of Holy Angels)
University of Maryland – Shade Pratt – freshman midfielder (Germantown, Maryland – Rosemount HS)
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee – Emma Worthington – freshman midfielder (Shoreview, Minn. – Moundsview HS)

2011 NCAA D1 WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT BRACKET

Coming up Next Week: Minnesotans leading the way in the NCAA D1 Men’s Tournament Field.