Ashley Lawrence of West Virginia started and had an assist in Canada's bronze medal win.
The list of current NCAA student-athletes winning medals in the Rio Olympic games can be added by four, as Ohio State’s Nichelle Prince, Duke’s Rebecca Quinn and West Virginia’s Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence received a bronze medal in women's soccer after Canada’s 2-1 win over Brazil.
The Canadian team featured 15 players to compete in the NCAA, including the four current ones.
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Lawrence and Buchanan each started in Friday’s bronze medal match, staying on the field for the whole game. Buchanan, a defender, played in five of Canada’s six contests while the midfielder Lawrence played in all six. In fact, the 21-year-old only came out for one half during the whole tournament.
Meanwhile, neither Prince nor Quinn were substituted in on Friday. Prince, a rising senior, played in three games while the fellow senior Quinn played in four, including starts in Canada’s first three games.
Lawrence had a big hand in the bronze medal game, picking up the assist on the first goal of the game in the 25th minute. She received a through ball to the edge of the box and passed it to her right to Deanne Rose, who buried it home.
Quinn’s assist on the game-winning goal in pool play against Germany was the only other point for the four in the tournament.
The schools of the four players, which are unquestionably relieved that the tournament is over and they can make it back to campus to begin their seasons, took to Twitter to offer congratulations.
CANADA WINS! Congratulations to @keishaballa and @AshleyLawrence on your BRONZE medals! #HailWV #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/NlSyLNNyTn
— WVU Women's Soccer (@wvuwomenssoccer) August 19, 2016
Congrats to @NichellePrince7 and @CanadaSoccerEN on winning bronze with a 2-1 win over Brazil! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/Ps0vSq52FB
— Ohio State WSOC (@OhioState_WSOC) August 19, 2016
Huge congrats #Duke senior @TheQuinny5, @CanadaSoccerEN winning bronze medal with 2-1 win vs #Brazil! #DukeInRio pic.twitter.com/IcQwWIMXKV
— Duke Women's Soccer (@Duke_WSOC) August 19, 2016
These players obviously are already standouts on their teams to have been named to the Canadian Olympic squad, but it will still surely be some nice bragging rights over their teammates when they can show off their Olympic hardware.
