Former Stanford goalkeeper in US gamers’ hearts on the Girls’s World Cup

Sports activities

Stanford goalkeeper Katie Meyer, good friend of Sophia Smith and Naomi Girma, died by suicide final yr.

FILE – Stanford goalkeeper Katie Meyer (19) acknowledges the gang after the group’s 4-1 win over UCLA in a semifinal of the NCAA Division I ladies’s soccer match in San Jose, Calif., on Dec. 6, 2019. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group through AP, File) Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group through AP, File

By ANNE M. PETERSON, Related Press

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) — Sophia Smith pretended to zip her lips closed as she celebrated her second objective in opposition to Vietnam throughout the US’ opening match on the Girls’s World Cup. It was a tribute to former Stanford teammate Katie Meyer, who died by suicide final yr.

  • Rematch time: USA and Netherlands to satisfy on the Girls’s World Cup

  • World Cup 2023: Meet the US ladies’s nationwide group

Smith and teammate Naomi Girma selected the tribute for Meyer, the goalkeeper star of Stanford’s 2019 NCAA championship. She stopped two penalty photographs within the title sport. An ebullient California lady recognized for her animated celebrations, Meyer made the gesture after her first penalty save as a option to silence anybody who doubted Stanford.

Girma was one in every of Meyer’s greatest associates. She penned a tribute to Meyer printed by The Gamers’ Tribune at first of the World Cup.

“Na (Naomi) and I talked about it earlier than the sport, and we had been like ‘What can we do for Katie?’” Smith stated. “And it was fairly iconic: what she did within the Faculty Cup. We simply needed to honor her in each approach. In order that was for Katie.”

Girma stated the gesture was Meyer’s “go-to,” and she or he and her teammates have made some extent to publicly talk about psychological well being since Meyer’s dying.

“We see this as a possibility to make clear numerous issues which can be vital to us,” Girma stated. “I believe that’s been one thing that’s been on the core of this group for thus lengthy, and for us to come back in now and stick with it that legacy is one thing that’s actually vital to us.”

Meyer’s household has stated the 21-year-old was distressed a couple of disciplinary e mail she obtained from the college earlier than her dying. They filed a wrongful dying lawsuit in opposition to the college final November.

The U.S. group received the its first match on the World Cup, 3-0. Smith completed with a pair of targets.

Up subsequent for the Individuals is a sport in opposition to The Netherlands — the group the U.S. defeated within the 2019 World Cup Ultimate — in Wellington on Thursday.