COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State’s Talani Barnett, Kayla Fischer and Sydney Jones were all named Big Ten Women’s Soccer Players to Watch this season. As a team, the Buckeyes were picked to finish fifth by the league’s head coaches in the preseason poll.
Barnett has been a stalwart on the Buckeye back line for four seasons. She has appeared in 69 games which is the most of any player on the team. She has a pair of goals and three assists in her career. Barnett earned third team All-Big Ten honors during the 2021 spring season and was named to the All-Freshman Team in 2018.
Fischer will be one of the top forwards in the Big Ten this season. The senior from Kent, Ohio is a two-time All-Big Ten honoree as well as a two-time United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-American. She enters this season sixth in program history with 239 career shots and her 20 goals and 17 assists both rank in the Top 15 in on the OSU career charts. Fischer also earned All-Big Ten Freshman Team honors in 2018 and is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree.
Jones is coming off a great first season that saw her start all 20 games last year. She was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team while playing center back. She will likely shift out to her natural position of outside back this season. Jones caught the eye of the national team and was invited to the USA U20 Training Camp this summer.
Ohio State returns 15 letterwinners and eight starters from last year’s team that made the program’s 15th NCAA Tournament appearance. The Buckeyes open the season on Aug. 18 at Kansas and will then play at Missouri on Aug. 21 before returning home to host NCAA runner-up BYU in the home-opener on Aug. 26.
2022 BIG TEN WOMEN’S SOCCER PRESEASON POLL
1. (tie) Penn State
(tie) Rutgers
3. Michigan
4. Wisconsin
5. Ohio State
6. Michigan State
7. Purdue
8. Iowa
9. Minnesota
10. Indiana
11. Northwestern
12. Nebraska
13. Maryland
14. Illinois
#GoBucks
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Women’s Soccer – Ohio State Buckeyes…