Simon Fraser University kicker Kristie Elliott has made history as the first Canadian woman to earn an NCAA football scholarship.
The 5-8, 140-pound Ms. Elliott also became the first Canadian woman to play and score in a college football game when she booted two touchdown conversions in a Sept. 11 road game against Linfield University.
“I just love the game of football and I’m just proud of myself that I got to go out there and play my first game,” Ms. Elliott, 21, told The Canadian Press.
A fourth-year psychology major and longtime soccer player, Ms. Elliott started college as a hurdler on the track team before switching to football on a dare.
After making the team, she did not play in the 2019 season or in the COVID-cancelled 2020 season.
In her debut at Linfield, Ms. Elliott missed one field goal and went 2 for 3 in conversion attempts.
Ms. Elliott then went 2 for 2 in conversions, without any field goal attempts, in a home game against Central Washington the following week.
Her success follows that of Sarah Fuller, the Vanderbilt kicker who became the first woman to score in a Power Five conference NCAA football game last December, and former University of New Mexico kicker Katie Hnida, who became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A match in 2003.
The SFU football team, which is considering a new nickname after retiring the monikers “Clansmen” and “Clan” in 2020, plays in the NCAA Division II’s Great Northwest Conference.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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