Kansas Signee Named Arkansas Player of the Year

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas soccer’s 2013 incoming freshman, Tayler Estrada, claimed two prestigious honors Tuesday as she was named the Arkansas Player of the Year by both The Gatorade Company and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The Gatorade Player of the Year award was the third-straight for the Bentonville High School product.

The Gatorade award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguished Estrada as Arkansas’s best high school girls soccer player.

Now the state’s three-time reigning Gatorade Player of the Year, the 5-foot-7 midfielder led her team to a 16-3-1 record and the Class 7A state title in 2013. Estrada scored 20 goals and passed for 24 assists. The two-time 7A West Conference Player of the Year, Estrada is a three-time First Team All-State selection and a two-time All-American honoree by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. She concluded her prep soccer career with 62 goals and 50 assists.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field.

Estrada will join the Jayhawks in early August as they prepare to begin their 2013 campaign. The regular season will then kick off on Aug. 23 when Estrada will return to her home state to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville.

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