Staford Cardinals and US women's national team midfielder Andi Sullivan has won the MAC Hermann Trophy after a fantastic 2017 season. The win is even sweeter for Sullivan after she suffered an ACL tear in overtime of a game against Santa Clara in the second round of the 2016 NCAA tournament. The injury occurred a month after Sullivan made her first two starts for the US women's national team and would keep Sullivan out of action for the first part of 2017.
Sullivan grew up in Lorton, Virginia - just south of Washington D.C. - and played club soccer for McLean Youth Soccer. She started representing her country with the U-15 US women's national soccer team and has played at each level thereafter, including seven appearances for the senior USWNT over the last 18 months.
Her time with Stanford has been decorated from start to finish with awards. She has been selected to the All PAC-12 first team all four years of her collegiate career, and slowly progressed her way toward winning the top award. She was a MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist as a sophomore, Finalist as a junior and finally won the award as a senior.
Her NCAA tournament career was similarly progressive. The team was not a top seed in her freshman season, but they were in each of her following three seasons. The team's earliest exit from the tournament occurred in her junior season, the same game in which Sullivan was injured. She was finally able to make the championship game and win the tournament this past season when the Cardinals beat the UCLA Bruins 3-2 in the final. Sullivan scored the second goal for Stanford in the 26th minute of that match. The win was a fitting end to a fantastic 24-1 season, ending in a 22-game winning streak. Sullivan scored three goals and earned six assists during her senior season.
Andi Sullivan is topdrawersoccer.com's top prospect as she finishes her collegiate career and prepares for the 2018 NWSL College Draft and projects to be the #1-overall selection. Currently, that pick is held by the Washington Spirit, who play in Boyds, MD about 45 minutes north of where Sullivan grew up. If she is drafted by the Spirit she will join fellow USWNT player Mallory Pugh, who decided last season to forego a collegiate career and move straight to the professional game. The draft will be on Thursday, January 18 in Philadelphia.