Megan Brown signs her letter of intent for Eastern Oregon.
LA GRANDE, Ore. -- The Eastern Oregon University women’s soccer team signed four players for the 2010 season this week.
Megan Brown, Brittney Hislop, and sisters Malayna and Sonora Lankert, will all be Mountaineers next season. The letters of intent mark the first under new EOU head coach Keith Scarlett.
Brown, a 5-5 goalkeeper at Shadow Ridge High School, has set three new school records during her high school career. In 2008 she recorded five shutouts, in 2009 she set the most combined shutout record with 13, and she had 96 saves last season.
"Megan has been very well coached at both the high school and club levels,” Scarlett said. “She's a very tough, tenacious competitor who is smart off her line and wants to command her box. Megan is technically solid and thrives under pressure. Megan's experience and leadership will make her a big asset for us."
The Las Vegas native has led her club team to two straight Nevada state titles. Brown played soccer in all four of her high school years, and played on the golf team for two seasons.
“I chose Eastern because of the friendliness of all of the people I met,” Brown said. “The beautiful campus didn’t hurt either.”
The daughter of Richard and Kerri Brown will be a Pre-Dentistry major at Eastern Oregon, and hopes to go into the field of Orthodontics.
The Mountaineers welcome the Lankert sisters in the fall. Sonora and Malayna will be graduating from Del Sol High School in Las Vegas in June. Malayna has lettered on the DSHS soccer team four years, the volleyball team three years, the track team three years, and the cross country team one year.
"Malayna has experience playing at some of the higher levels available,” Scarlett said. “She is a tough, determined player and a relentless competitor who strikes a solid, textured ball. She has un-canniness to her play that combined with her strength and ability to change her pace makes her quite unpredictable and very dangerous for an opponent."
Malayna is interested in education and sports medicine as majors at Eastern. The regional high school all-star would like to be a teacher or physical trainer.
Sonora comes to EOU after being named the All-Southeast League Best Defensive Player, Best Offensive Player, and Best All-Around Player while at Del Sol. The 5-7 standout lettered four seasons for soccer, two for volleyball and track, and one for cross country.
"Sonora plays for one of the top programs in the state of Nevada,” Scarlett said. “Her first-touch is clever and she has the ability to change her pace in the tightest of quarters. Her technical ability, willingness to both defend and go forward as well as her physical intangibles will allow her the opportunities to change games on a whim."
Sonora will be a Biology major, and hopes to be a veterinarian. The daughters of Jon Lankert and Felicia Martinez both mentioned the players, the coach, and the campus as reasons for choosing Eastern Oregon University.
Hislop comes to La Grande via Belfair, Wash. The transfer from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass. returns to the Pacific Northwest for her sophomore season. She played four seasons of soccer and tennis while at North Mason High School in Washington before graduating in 2009.
The daughter of Pam and Chuck Hislop appeared in all of Eastern Nazarene’s 19 games last season, with 18 of the appearances coming in the net. She made 139 saves with a save percentage of .785. Hislop won six games, and had six shutouts. Her intended major at EOU will be psychology.
"Brittney is a very tough, strong and deceitfully quick player,” Scarlett said. “She's unique in that she has an entire year of collegiate experience between the pipes as a goalkeeper, but she is just as talented on the field. Her exact role in the program is still to be determined, but she will definitely help us and bring more to the table."