JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Former Carson-Newman soccer All-Americans Helen Seed and Lauren Wade have both signed fresh professional contract in Europe.
Seed has inked a contract FF Lugano 1976 in the Swiss National League A, while Wade is playing for Throttur Reykjavik in Iceland's Deild Women's League A.
Seed wrapped up a historic four-year career at Carson-Newman in 2017 as a defender for the Eagles who played an integral part to the team getting to the 2017 NCAA National Championship match in which she was named to the All-Tournament squad. Seed also experienced three-straight SAC regular season and championship ship titles, having never missed an All-Conference squad at the end of the year. She claimed a spot on the SAC All-Tournament team each of those three seasons.
Seed finished her career with the fourth-most minutes played in the history of the women's soccer program at Carson-Newman tallying 6821 minutes. She started in 77 games over her four-career which is also good for third-best all-time, wrapping up arguably the best careers as a defender in C-N's illustrious history.
Her 23 games started in 2017 tie a program record for a single season, recording a team-leading 2079 minutes. During her senior campaign, Seed came away with a career-high four goals and added one helper. She provided the Eagles with one of the best defenses in the nation shutting out opponents 14 times while holding 12 different teams to six shots or less through 90 minutes, along with six straight shutouts from Oct. 7 to Oct. 31, a program record.
"It will be interesting to learn all the hard work that goes into preparing a team for such an intense season and tackling the challenges through," Seed added. "I'm hoping that my four years playing here are going to help with those newcomers as I can relate to how they're feeling starting their college careers. I've experience some very highs and lows through this soccer program so hopefully, I can offer some guidance and support throughout the season."
Her play was not only recognized on the conference level, it included the most prized stage with national honors grabbing a total of eight different accolades following the year, the second-most in a single season in school history.
- 2017 D2CCA Second-Team All-America
- 2017 USC Third-Team All-America
- 2017 D2CCA First-team All-Region
- 2017 USC First-team All-Region
- 2017 CoSIDA Scholar First-team All-America
- 2017 SAC All-Tournament Team
- 2017 NCAA All-Tournament Team
- 2017 SAC First-Team
Meanwhile, Wade closed her Carson-Newman career by earning South Atlantic Conference Female Athlete of the Year honors in back-to-back seasons.
Wade claimed United Soccer Coaches First-Team All-American, D2CCA First-Team All-American, and the Academic All-American in a little less than two weeks.
Of her 18 goals in her senior year, seven came in game-winning fashion to tie a single season program record. Her 49 points that season were tied for third in the nation.
The two-time All-American finished her career with an abundance of C-N records. She ranks first all-time in assists per game (.60), shots per game (6.20) and shots on goal per game (3.35).
She is third all-time in assists with 24 and goals with 38. She cracked the century mark with a point total of 100 in just two seasons.
They join former midfielders Varin Ness (Italy) and Camilla Ollson (Sweden) among active Eagles playing professionally.