Reign FC select three in 2020 NWSL College Draft

The 2020 NWSL College Draft is in the books, and after a flurry of trades saw nearly every first-round pick swapped along with some big names and a lot of allocation money, 36 players were selected. Reign FC made a late trade to acquire an additional 4th round draft pick and selected three players.

With their first-round pick, the Reign selected midfielder Kelcie Hedge from Santa Clara University. Hedge, a native of Post Falls, Idaho, started her collegiate career at the University of Washington before joining the Broncos in 2017. She was a PAC-12 All-Freshman in her first year with the Huskies, starting all 21 games and scoring four goals. She redshirted her sophomore year in order to play with the U-20 USWNT in the 2016 U-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea, then transferred to Santa Clara. With the Broncos she was a MAC Hermann Trophy semifinalist, First-Team All-American, WCC Player of the Year, and scored 7 goals and 2 assists in 2018.

In the fourth round of the draft, Reign FC selected Stanford defender Sam Hiatt with the 33rd overall pick. Hiatt, a native of Newcastle, WA, attended Seattle Prep for high school. She started her collegiate career at Boston College, where she started all 19 games for the Eagles and played a team-high 1729 minutes before transferring to Stanford in 2017. While at Stanford she won two national championships and was a team captain in her senior year. She was a member of the U-20 USWNT at the 2018 U-20 World Cup.

Reign FC then traded a player to be named later, who Ride of the Valkyries has been told will be announced as Christen Westphal, to Portland Thorns FC in exchange for the 34th overall pick. [Update 1:20 PM January 17: The teams have officially confirmed that Westphal’s NWSL rights were traded to the Thorns.] The Reign used that pick on Nebraska formidfender Meg Brandt. A native of Iowa, where she was the 2015 Gatorade Iowa Girls Soccer Player of the Year, Brandt played in every game all four years for the Cornhuskers. She finished her college career with 12 goals and 7 assists in 80 appearances, was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team in 2018 and has earned several call-ups to the U-23 USWNT.