SAN JOSE, Calif. — Stanford announced Wednesday that the undergraduate student who died Tuesday was Katie Meyer, a goalkeeper and captain for the Cardinal women’s soccer team.
Meyer was found dead in her on-campus residence on Tuesday, which the university initially reported without identifying the student. Stanford has released no information on Meyer’s cause of death.
Meyer, 22, was the starting goalkeeper in the national championship game for Stanford in 2019, making two saves in the penalty shootout to help the Cardinal beat North Carolina for its third NCAA women’s soccer title. Her reaction to making the second save — where she looked directly at ESPN’s camera and pantomimed locking her mouth shut and throwing away the key — instantly went viral.
In a statement, Stanford vice provost Susie Brubaker-Cole and athletic director Bernard Muir said: “Katie was extraordinarily committed to everything and everyone in her world. Her friends described her as a larger-than-life team player in all her pursuits, from choose an academic discipline she said ‘changed my perspective on the world and the very important challenges that we need to work together to overcome’ to the passion she brought to the Cardinal women’s soccer program and to women’s sports in general.”
Muir also added in a tweet: “There are no words to express the deep sadness we feel about Katie Meyer’s passing. Katie was an outstanding student-athlete and a beloved, passionate leader here at Stanford. Our entire athletics community is heartbroken and Katie will be deeply missed.”
Meyer played in 50 games across three seasons for the Cardinal, producing 20 shutouts and winning 34 matches while only allowing 35 goals. Her goaltending in 2019 as a redshirt freshman was a key factor in Stanford’s title run, going undefeated in 16 starts (15-0-1) with 11 shutouts. She started 19 of Stanford’s 20 games last fall, making 45 saves against 17 goals allowed.
Meyer was twice a team captain for Stanford and twice named to the Pac-12’s academic honor roll. She majored in international relations and was minoring in history. She recently recorded the first episode in a series she was hosting called “Be The Mentality,” which she tweeted was a show talking “life, sports, college, all the good stuff.” Her first guest was her father.
She also was a part of the news outlet Just Women’s Sports’ inaugural Varsity Squad, an internship program designed to help “elevate and grow women’s sports coverage.” Meyer was also utilizing recent bylaw changes allowing NCAA athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness rights, starting a Cameo page and making multiple sponsored posts.
Meyer grew up in Newbury Park in Ventura County, about an hour northwest of Los Angeles. At Newbury Park High School, Meyer was also a kicker on the football team for two seasons and once kicked three extra points successfully in a game, according to her Maxpreps page.
“She will always be a true Panther and showed her great character both on the soccer field, football field and on campus,” Newbury Park football coach Joe Smigiel tweeted.
“She will be greatly missed. Prayers to her family and close friends.”
In its release, Stanford included a list of grief resources available to students and others in the campus community.
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