Lesesne’s inaugural signing class at Georgia looks to add more balance to the Bulldogs’ existing roster, bringing in two new defenders in Anna Bougas (Grayson, Ga./GSA) and Maya Cherry (Bethesda, Md./Potomac Hotspur). The class is rounded out by forward Clara Gastaldi (Suwanne, Ga./Concorde Fire SC), goalkeeper Hannah Goudy (Cumming, Ga./GSA) and midfielder Sydney Shultis (McDonough, Ga./GSA).
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Meet the 2015 Signees – Click Here
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“I’m excited with the five commitments that are coming in,” Lesesne said of his first class of signees at Georgia. “I think they give us some added versatility and they can play in different positions. We have a lot of returning players on the offensive side of the field and this recruiting class gives us a goalkeeper and some good defensive players. Gastaldi also gives us another good attacking option. There is a good balance in this class.”
The Bulldogs lost just two seniors from a year ago in midfielder Laura Eddy and defender Carli Shultis. With the departure of one Shultis, comes the arrival of another in the form of Sydney, Carli’s younger sister, who is the lone midfielder in Georgia’s 2015 signing class.
This year’s class consists almost entirely of players hailing form the state of Georgia, with four out of five signees calling the Peach State home. In fact, the lone out-of-state signee, Maya Cherry, is originally from Georgia and only recently moved to Maryland to finish up her high school career.
Georgia relied heavily on its freshmen in 2014 with 11 rookie position players seeing significant playing time and six combining for 48 starts on the year. Seven of the newcomers saw action in 14 or more games, including goalkeeper Louise Hogrell who started all 20 games in goal for the Bulldogs, and Kelsey Killean who appeared in all 20 games and was named to the SEC’s All-Freshman team.
The five new additions will join a young Bulldog squad consisting of 5 juniors, 12 sophomores and 16 freshmen from 2014.