Emily Smith Earns All-Region Honors

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - California women's soccer fifth-year senior Emily Smith was named to the All-Pacific Region Second Team by the United Soccer Coaches on Monday.

Smith was named to an All-Region team for the third time in her career. She earned third team honors as a freshman in 2017 and was a first-team member during the 2019 campaign. The is the fourth award of the 2021 offseason for Smith as she was also named to the All-Pac-12 second team, the CoSida Academic All-District First Team and was a semifinalist for the Senior CLASS Award.

Smith has been a pillar in Cal's stingy defense as she started all 18 games and led the Bears in minutes. The Los Gatos native played 1,712 minutes, just three short of playing every minute of the 2021 season. She only left the field for the final three minutes of Cal's 3-0 season opening win over UCSD. Otherwise, the fifth-year senior marshalled a Bears defense that allowed less than a goal per game and recorded seven shutouts.

"This is a fitting honor for Emily as she concludes her Cal career," head coach Neil McGuire said. "As a four-year captain, she has led our program with distinction both in her soccer and academics. She truly is the gold standard of what a student-athlete should aspire to be and we are very proud of her. We are excited to watch her progress as she enters the next phase of her professional career and wish her every success."
 
The defense did a fantastic job of limiting dangerous opportunities as they allowed only 3.8 shots on goal per game thanks to Smith and the rest of the Bears' defense. Smith was selected in the 2021 NWSL Draft by Racing Louisville and will join up with them for the 2022 season.