St. John’s soccer star drafted into National Women’s Soccer League

St. John’s soccer star Zsani Kajan selected in the 2022 NWSL Draft 

On Saturday afternoon former St. John’s soccer star Zsani Kajan was drafted to the National Women’s Soccer League.

The Budapest native was selected No. 8 overall to the OL Reign.

The fifth year senior capped off a fantastic collegiate career with 17 goals and six assists in 23 games this fall. Her 17 goals were tied for third place all-time with Cristin Burtis’ 1994 season for the single season goals record.

Overall, the star forward finishes her career in Queens in second place all-time in goals with 45, just five goals behind Rachel Daly for the all-time lead.

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Kajan is the only player in program history to finish with 10 or more goals in three separate seasons for the Red Storm.

The two-time Big East Offensive Player of the Year helped anchor the Red Storm to arguably its greatest season in program history as the Johnnies finished with a 13-7-3 (6-3-1 Big East) record.

St. John’s made its first Big East Tournament Championship Game appearance since 1994 and advancing to the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, capturing wins over Brown and Samford.

St. John’s soccer making its presence know in NWSL

St. John’s has now had two Top-10 NWSL draft picks in the last six years, Zsani Kajan and Rachel Daly.

Daly was picked 6th overall to the Houston Dash in 2016.

Kajan now enters into her professional career with the OL Reign, who saw its season end this past November in the NWSL Semifinal in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Spirit.

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The team features of the likes of United States Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle and now Kajan will try to add more firepower to their ranks at the No. 9 spot.

A storied career in Queens is now done as Zsani Kajan looks to embark on, hopefully, a long and prosperous professional career while St. John’s will look to find their next goal-scoring machine and engineer another successful season next fall.