Kelsey Branson: SoCal Surfer Girl Turned Seattle Iron Woman
November 14, 2025 | Women's Soccer
SEATTLE – Maybe it's the team cutting the wood or hoisting the steel beams into place. Maybe it's the electrical team. Or the plumbing team or the glass team.
If there's something to be built or a job to be finished, those are the folks who dependably show up every day and get it done, bringing their hard hats, their lunch buckets and their know-how.
Same kind of concept applies on the soccer field. There's a job to be done. Matches to be won. Championships to be chased. It takes players bringing that same kind of hard-hat-and-lunch-bucket mindset, along with their athletic know-how, to the field every day in every way.
That's precisely what Kelsey Branson brings to the Washington Huskies.
Having just won both the Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament titles, Branson and her talented teammates head into the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday when they welcome the Montana Grizzlies to Husky Soccer Stadium.
Kickoff on what looks likely to be a cool and wet evening – welcome to Seattle in November – is set for 7:00 p.m. PT.
The outcome, of course, remains uncertain. There are 64 teams still kicking, and at this point, all of them are high-quality. While the fourth-seeded Huskies (13-2-6) won the Big Ten Tournament in a penalty kick shootout last Sunday in St. Louis, the Grizzlies (11-3-5) also went to PKs on their home field in Missoula to beat Weber State for the Big Sky Conference crown.
One thing, however, is certain: Branson will be on the field at the opening whistle…
… for the 69th straight time.
"It's crazy, and I'm so honored to be able to have that accomplishment", said the senior midfielder from San Diego. "I didn't realize it was that many until my teammates brought it up and said, 'Do you know you've started this many games?'
"If you had told me freshman year that this is where I would be today, I wouldn't have believed it."
After coming off the bench for the first nine matches of her career in 2022, Branson became a starter for the final seven. After that, she started all 19 contests as a sophomore, all 21 as a junior, and now all 21 matches during her final fall on Montlake.
"It was a harder journey my freshman year when I just fighting for minutes," Branson said. "I would play 10 minutes or so a game and just working hard to get into the lineup. To be able to begin starting was such a privilege. And I'm so thankful that I've been able to stay healthy."
That very first start came on Oct. 9, 2022 in a Pac-12 match at California, and she played 80 minutes. In the final six matches that year, she went all 90 minutes in five of them.
As a sophomore, she went the full 90 twice in 19 matches. Last season, she went all 90 in four contests, including all 110 minutes in an NCAA First Round matchup at Utah State that the Huskies ultimately won on penalty kicks.
This season, team captain and All-Big Ten Third Team selection Branson has gone the distance in 13-of-20, including 12 of the last 14. In Sunday's Big Ten Tournament Championship Game against Michigan State, she played all 110.
"She's so optimistic and she's so positive from a leadership standpoint," UW head coach Nicole Van Dyke said. "Her work ethic and what she does on the field from a consistency standpoint, she's a player who can play 90 minutes. And in the last moments you want her with the ball at her feet because she's always wanting to make something happen.
"She's an unbelievable team player and always has a knack of finding a way," Van Dyke added. "Whether you're ball-winning or creating chances or need a tackle or need someone to interchange and get in the final third in the final minutes, Kelsey is someone who's going to do that for us."
With five goals and three assists for this season (16 goals /13 assists for her career), Branson is very much looking forward to Friday's match against Montana.
"I love playing a team that we have not played before, getting to look at the scout, being prepared, and seeing new faces," she said. "These are going to be really good games. It's the top-64, and everyone is great. I'm super-excited, the team is super-excited, and we're just hoping to get a result so we can head to Virginia next week."
Whenever she hears the final whistle for the final time – preferably a few more weeks from now – Branson has an idea of what she wants her legacy to be. And it's more than just all of those consecutive starts.
"I think one thing I bring is just leading and being a good role model and being a good example," she said. "I wouldn't say I'm the most outspoken person on the team. I just try to be like the older girls were to me, being a role model. And my hope is that my teammates will follow me and see what I'm dong and want to be like that and follow that."
If there's something to be built or a job to be finished, those are the folks who dependably show up every day and get it done, bringing their hard hats, their lunch buckets and their know-how.
Same kind of concept applies on the soccer field. There's a job to be done. Matches to be won. Championships to be chased. It takes players bringing that same kind of hard-hat-and-lunch-bucket mindset, along with their athletic know-how, to the field every day in every way.
That's precisely what Kelsey Branson brings to the Washington Huskies.
Having just won both the Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament titles, Branson and her talented teammates head into the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday when they welcome the Montana Grizzlies to Husky Soccer Stadium.
Kickoff on what looks likely to be a cool and wet evening – welcome to Seattle in November – is set for 7:00 p.m. PT.
The outcome, of course, remains uncertain. There are 64 teams still kicking, and at this point, all of them are high-quality. While the fourth-seeded Huskies (13-2-6) won the Big Ten Tournament in a penalty kick shootout last Sunday in St. Louis, the Grizzlies (11-3-5) also went to PKs on their home field in Missoula to beat Weber State for the Big Sky Conference crown.
One thing, however, is certain: Branson will be on the field at the opening whistle…
… for the 69th straight time.
"It's crazy, and I'm so honored to be able to have that accomplishment", said the senior midfielder from San Diego. "I didn't realize it was that many until my teammates brought it up and said, 'Do you know you've started this many games?'
"If you had told me freshman year that this is where I would be today, I wouldn't have believed it."
After coming off the bench for the first nine matches of her career in 2022, Branson became a starter for the final seven. After that, she started all 19 contests as a sophomore, all 21 as a junior, and now all 21 matches during her final fall on Montlake.
"It was a harder journey my freshman year when I just fighting for minutes," Branson said. "I would play 10 minutes or so a game and just working hard to get into the lineup. To be able to begin starting was such a privilege. And I'm so thankful that I've been able to stay healthy."
That very first start came on Oct. 9, 2022 in a Pac-12 match at California, and she played 80 minutes. In the final six matches that year, she went all 90 minutes in five of them.
As a sophomore, she went the full 90 twice in 19 matches. Last season, she went all 90 in four contests, including all 110 minutes in an NCAA First Round matchup at Utah State that the Huskies ultimately won on penalty kicks.
This season, team captain and All-Big Ten Third Team selection Branson has gone the distance in 13-of-20, including 12 of the last 14. In Sunday's Big Ten Tournament Championship Game against Michigan State, she played all 110.
"She's so optimistic and she's so positive from a leadership standpoint," UW head coach Nicole Van Dyke said. "Her work ethic and what she does on the field from a consistency standpoint, she's a player who can play 90 minutes. And in the last moments you want her with the ball at her feet because she's always wanting to make something happen.
"She's an unbelievable team player and always has a knack of finding a way," Van Dyke added. "Whether you're ball-winning or creating chances or need a tackle or need someone to interchange and get in the final third in the final minutes, Kelsey is someone who's going to do that for us."
With five goals and three assists for this season (16 goals /13 assists for her career), Branson is very much looking forward to Friday's match against Montana.
"I love playing a team that we have not played before, getting to look at the scout, being prepared, and seeing new faces," she said. "These are going to be really good games. It's the top-64, and everyone is great. I'm super-excited, the team is super-excited, and we're just hoping to get a result so we can head to Virginia next week."
Whenever she hears the final whistle for the final time – preferably a few more weeks from now – Branson has an idea of what she wants her legacy to be. And it's more than just all of those consecutive starts.
"I think one thing I bring is just leading and being a good role model and being a good example," she said. "I wouldn't say I'm the most outspoken person on the team. I just try to be like the older girls were to me, being a role model. And my hope is that my teammates will follow me and see what I'm dong and want to be like that and follow that."
Players Mentioned
MF
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