KELOWNA, B.C. – The UBC Okanagan Heat women's soccer team announced on Tuesday their 2023 recruiting class that features six new additions, all from the province of Alberta.
Five of the incoming athletes are from Calgary, including midfielders Annabelle Walker, Ashley Kavanaugh and Eleni Georgacacos, and defenders Ainsley Kirk and Breanne Wong, along with Edmonton native and defender Sofia Lafuente.
"We are really excited about this year's recruiting class," commented Heat head coach Craig Smith. "We have a great mix of scoring, creating and defensive actions coming to our roster with this group of athletes. Each of the players come from great environments with great cultures which we're also looking forward to adding to our program."
Highlighting the group are four teammates from the Calgary Blizzard soccer club as Kirk, Walker, Wong and Kavanaugh all enjoyed a high level of success with their club program. All four athletes were members of the 2022 squad that won the gold medal at the club provincial championships as well as the bronze medal at the national championship.
In addition, Kavanaugh was a member of the Alberta Regional Excel (REX) program from 2019 until 2020 while both Kavanaugh and Wong were honours students at their respective high schools, Robert Thirsk and Crescent Heights.
While at UBCO, Kirk and Kavanaugh will be studying in the Bachelor of Health and Exercise Sciences program, Wong will be in the Bachelor of Science program while Walker will be in the Bachelor of Arts program.
Joining the quartet of Blizzard athletes on the Heat next season will be fellow Calgarian Georgacacos, who played her club soccer with Calgary Southwest United. Georgacacos was a runner up at the provincial championships in 2022 and also spent three years with the Alberta REX program from 2018 until 2020.
Georgacacos will join Wong in the Bachelor of Science program in September.
Rounding out this year's recruiting class is Lafuente who brings a deep resume to the Heat in 2023. A member of the St. Albert Impact, Lafuente is a former provincial champion who was also a member of the Alberta REX program as well as the provincial team. She also won the Sounders Cup, was a runner-up at the USA Cup and was a medalist at the Skyline Cup in Frankfurt, Germany.
Additionally, the impending graduate of St. Francis Xavier High School excels in the classroom as she was the Edmonton Catholic Schools Superintendent's Award of Excellence recipient. She will study in the Bachelor of Arts program starting in September.
All six additions will make their way to Kelowna towards the end of July when training camp gets underway for the Heat ahead of the 2023 season.