Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa‘s recent success hasn’t gone unnoticed as she and the Tigers gained verbal commitments from 2022 defender Erin Houston and 2023 forward Sydney Ritter on Tuesday.
Houston announced her commitment to Auburn with a post to her Twitter account.
The 5-foot-8 defender who plays for Harrison High School in Kennesaw, Georgia, chose the Tigers over the University of Georgia. Houston was named the Marietta Daily Journal’s Girls Soccer Player of the Year in 2021, racking up nine goals and 10 assists in her first season at Harrison High. She also practiced at the year-round United States Soccer Development Academy before the development academy system was shut down in 2020, due to financial dismay caused by the pandemic.
While Auburn’s first commit came from just two hours down I-85, it’s next came from much farther away.
Ritter, a 5-foot-7 forward from Berlin, New Jersey, has been described as Eastern High School’s “latest rising star” by The Sun Papers, as she and the Vikings maintained an illustrious 79-3-3 record for a span of three years from 2017 to 2020.
Ritter’s parents announced her commitment with a post to twitter.
Eastern High was ranked No. 1 in the state and went undefeated in the 2020-21 season with Ritter scoring 12 goals and assisting on seven more in team’s 15 game season. The team won four South Jersey Coaches Association Tournaments in 2020 and also claimed the 2018 New Jersey State Championship.
Houston will get to Auburn’s campus before the start of the 2022-23 season while Ritter will join the Tiger’s squad in the following year in fall of 2023.
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Larry is a senior studying journalism with a minor in sociology. He is from Enterprise, Alabama and is in his third year with The Auburn Plainsman.
Twitter: @ReportingLarry
