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Yael Averbuch is a member of the U.S. Women’s National soccer team pool, and recorded her first two caps (international appearances) at the Four Nations Tournament in January, 2007. As a college sophomore, she is one of the youngest members of the team.
She is the 2006 Soccer Buzz and Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Year, and was one of three finalists for the prestigious 2006 MAC Hermann trophy and the Honda Award for College Player of the Year. She is the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Offensive Player of the Year, and helped lead the legendary University of North Carolina (UNC) Tarheels to their 18 th NCAA National Championship women’s soccer title in 2006. She was named to the NCAA All-tournament team, and a 2006 NSCAA, Soccer America and Soccer Buzz first team All-American. She is a member of the 2006 Jewish Sports Review All-America Team, and two-time ACC Player of the Week in 2006.
She was a first team ACC Academic women’s soccer team as both a freshman and sophomore, and first team Soccer America and Soccer Buzz All-Freshman for 2005, as well as the Soccer Buzz Southeast Region Freshman of the Year. She has made the Dean’s List at UNC each college semester, with a 3.6 - 3.7 GPA.
Among her 2006 team leading 16 goals (and 7 assists), one was scored in September 2006, in a defeat of Yale University, which set as all-time record in women’s college soccer for the fastest goal ever scored, four seconds from the kick-off, which sailed 55 yards into the net. The goal, which came in number three on ESPN television’s top ten sports highlights of the week, has to date been viewed on YouTube nearly 34,545 times. Yael made her first youth national team at age 15, and was a member of the U.S. Under-19 Women’s team that won the bronze medal in the World Championships in Thailand in 2004. She was a two-time high school Parade Magazine All-American, and a three-time NSCAA and USYSA high school All-American. As a high school student, she graduated with honors, and was a National Merit Scholarship candidate.
At 14, as a member of the New Jersey Stallions, she was the youngest player ever named to a roster in the women’s semi-professional W-league. On the club level, she was a member of the New Jersey World Class U18, which was the Region I championship in 2004, and a member of the Mid-Island championship team in the summer of 2001 at the Maccabi Games in Pennsylvania.
Says legendary soccer coach Anson Dorrance, the winningest coach in all Division I college sports, “Here at UNC we pride ourselves on player development and what has set Yael Averbuch apart is how much she has improved as a player in one year. She has done it with an extraordinary work ethic but also with a joy of the game. Individual development is about self coaching. It is about understanding what to do and then harnessing a fierce discipline to do the right things consistently. Like very few players, Yael knows the game and what she has to require of herself to elevate her place in it. She is very special in so many ways and I am so happy she selected to play for me and the University of North Carolina.”
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