The women's soccer team and head coach Lewis Robinson have added some international flair to the 2019 recruiting class, signing Danaya McKenzie of New Zealand to a Letter of Intent.
McKenzie comes from Rotorua, New Zealand and Western Heights High School. She has played for many local clubs including Rotorua City and Rotorua United, numerous school teams including Otonga Terriers and Tigers, Rotorua Intermediate, and Western Heights High School. McKenzie competed for the Waikato Bay of Plenty regional team and also competed Nationally for the New Zealand Crosswhites in 2018.
Between 2012 and 2016, McKenzie attended the New Zealand soccer National Talent Centre, training under the top coaches in New Zealand. In 2015 she recieved the Most Valuable Player and Top Goal scorer of the regional secondary school National competition, where her school team participated. In both 2015 and 2017 McKenzie was selected to be a part of the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Womens team, which would compete nationally against other regionally selected women in the National Womens League. She won the U-16 National Futsal Championship in 2014 with the Bay of Plenty under 16s futsul team, and in 2015 and 2016 she won National competitions with the Waikato-Bay of Plenty U-15 and U-16 teams.
McKenzie has plenty of International soccer experience as well, traveling with a select team in 2014 to Tonga to take on the U-17, U-20 and National teams. In 2018 she traveled with another select team to Valencia, Spain to train, and also travled to Australia as a part of the New Zealand Women's Crosswhites team, in the CFFA National titles, where we played state teams from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales. McKenzie was named as a part of the tournament team in the CFFA National titles.
Said McKenzie, "My decision for a college had to meet a checklist requirement. This checklist in question included "gut" feeling, location, whether or not the school in question offered the degree I was looking to study (kinesiology), and what kind of support would be provided for me. Aquinas appealed to me because it ticked all of these boxes and appeared to have a soccer program that would push me to be better and to be improving as both a person and as a player."
