You Can Find Me In Da Club: The Avery Nguyen Story
November 27, 2025 | Women's Soccer
SEATTLE – She's the kind of person who usually never gives up on anything. Not in the classroom. Not on the soccer pitch.
Not even when waiting for a phone call.
Pick any real-life situation, and Avery Nguyen takes the concept of stick-to-itiveness to a whole other level.
But while she was back home in Kansas after her freshman year at the University of Washington, she was starting to wonder if that call would ever come… the call that could possibly open a pathway to playing for the Huskies.
"I was still training with the (UW) club team. I would practice a couple times a week with them," said Nguyen, who joined that squad in 2022 after being told the varsity team's roster was full, thanks in part to the return of several players who had been granted an additional year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"I was training on my own. I was doing fitness things."
And Nguyen was reaching out to the Washington coaching staff, letting them know she was still here. Still working.
Still hoping for the chance to put on a UW kit.
"I e-mailed, but I didn't hear anything back. I said, 'Should I text?', but I didn't hear anything back," Nguyen said. "I was sort of giving up."
As the summer of 2023 moved toward its midpoint and Nguyen moved closer to starting her sophomore year as a pre-med student – and starting another year with the club team, having been their leading scorer as a freshman – her phone finally buzzed.
It was a text from head coach Nicole Van Dyke.
"She said, 'Would you like to potentially try out for the team?' Obviously, I said, 'Yes,' said Nguyen, her voice still filled with a tone of excitement even now as she recalled a moment that happened more than two years ago. "That's what I'd been hoping for."
At that point of course, Van Dyke had yet to see Nguyen play.
But she already had seen her persistence.
"We had gone from having a large roster to a small roster because all of those kids had graduated," said Van Dyke, who had asked one of the players working a Husky summer camp if the club team had any potential candidates who might make a good fit on the varsity squad. That player suggested Nguyen.
"I remember going back home that night and looking through my e-mail. You'll hear about a player and see if they reached out to you.
"We get thousands of e-mails (from players interested in joining the team). She had reached out a few times."
That's when Van Dyke, now in her sixth year at the Husky helm, reached back.
Right off, she was straight-forward about the situation. Nguyen would be the only player on the field who wasn't officially on the team.
At least not yet.
"I told her, 'Hey, no guarantees. But if this is something you want to see if it's going to work out for you and for us, I can offer you this 10-day tryout," she said. "I told her it was going to be awkward because she was the only one not on the team. I said, 'Just come in and work hard and be you.'"
From that tenuous time as a tryout candidate, Nguyen is now a rotation regular for Washington. She has played in 22 of the 24 games this season, including all three NCAA Tournament contests. Next up: Friday's Elite Eight showdown against Duke. Kickoff on the Blue Devils' home field in Durham, North Carolina, is at 1:00 p.m. PT.
Nguyen and her UW teammates reached this point with a pair of heart-pounding victories last weekend. The first was a 1-0 second-rounder against No. 4 Arkansas on a goal by Alex Buck at 8:01 into sudden-death overtime. The second was a 5-4 in a Sweet 16 penalty kick shootout against top seed Virginia following a 1-1 draw through 90 minutes of regulation time and 20 minutes of overtime.
"I don't think there were a ton of nerves. We were happy to be there and we deserved to be there," Nguyen said. "We were just playing for each other and playing for Mia (Hamant) and hoping to get a results."
Happy to be there" and "deserved to be there" also could apply to Nguyen getting onto the field for each of those wins – 35 minutes against Arkansas (with three shots taken) and 51 minutes against Virginia.
Matter of fact, as excited as she was to get that long-awaited phone call – or in this case, a long-awaited text – a couple summers ago, Van Dyke was just as excited to see what Nguyen could do and how she might blend in
It didn't take long for her to see it.
"Her club teammates said she's really committed and really driven – and the lights start flashing because that's about who we are," Van Dyke said. "Athletically, she's fit. She is so technical and so calm and composed on the field and makes great decisions There was enough for me to be like, 'wow, there's a high ceiling here.' The team was really young at the time and she could grow with them."
A two-time first-team all-state selection at Olathe High School in the Kansas town of the same name, the 5-8 forward had her sights set on playing college soccer. But the schools that she heard from during the recruiting process just didn't appeal to her for various reasons, whether it was academics, proximity, or other factors.
She applied at a couple of schools based solely on academics, with the hope that she could walk on or perhaps be a practice player. Nguyen, who is in pre-med, ultimately settled on Washington.
"I went to one of the soccer camps before my freshman year and Nicole talked to me for a little bit," she said. "But she said their roster was full with COVID seniors."
Indeed, that was an issue for just about every sport at every level of the NCAA. Any athlete who had lost a season because of the pandemic shutdown was allowed to retain that year of eligibility. While not everyone was able to take advantage of it (some athletes already had jobs or internships or grad programs lined up), many were able to come back for another year.
That meant fewer available roster spots for potential newcomers.
"After COVID, we had 36 or 37 kids on the team. What that does when you're talking about players coming into the team, that makes it hard to see how one might fit from a numbers standpoint," Van Dyke said. "You can look at it two ways. We missed the opportunity in her freshman year to get her. But this kind of completes the journey.
"Sometimes," Van Dyke added, "the journey is not linear. We're pretty fired up that she's with us and everything worked out the way it did."
Thrilled as Nguyen was to have the tryout invitation, the clock was ticking. Washington's report day was less than two weeks away.
"I had one and a half or two weeks to prepare, and then I drove up there from Kansas City," Nguyen said. "I was very nervous. It was just kind of scary going in and everyone had their spot on the team. It was hard. I didn't want to overstep and become friends and then get cut. It was kind of a weird spot to be in."
Nervous or not, Nguyen made a positive impression on Van Dyke.
Then in one of the team meetings, she got the word.
"Nicole announced, 'We would like to offer Avery a spot on the team. Do you accept?'
Nguyen's answer was an unequivocal 'yes' – albeit in her own personal style.
"It was an Avery moment," Van Dyke said. "She's not one who's going to be jumping around and being the center of attention. It was like, 'I did this.' It's really fun see how she has gelled with the team."
Having earned a spot on the team for the 2023 season, it was now up to Nguyen to earn some playing time.
During that first fall, she saw action in 12 of Washington's 19 games, starting two of them, and totaling 270 minutes on the field.
Nguyen played just one game in 2024. But this year, she has much busier with 22 games and one start, racking up 850 minutes heading into Friday's contest at Duke. She has tallied three goals and two assists, and has embraced the role of providing a boost off the bench whenever she takes the field.
"Going into the season, I wasn't expecting to play a ton," she said. "But the coaches sort of pushed me. I was kind of content with my role and being on the "game changers" (the team's term for substitution players). I was committed to my role and they wanted me to keep pushing and have higher goals.
"I just put in the work. When the time came, I was ready and just applied all the things that the coaches were asking of me… I like bringing energy off the bench and bringing some changes to the game."
Coaches across the sporting spectrum highly value players who have exactly that kind of mindset.
"At this point, she has been an absolute game changer for us this season," Van Dyke said. "When a kid responds every day with 'I just need to show up and be the best pink player (reserve player) that I can and be the best game changer that I can be for the team ' – she's incredible at that role.
"Like many of our game changers, she could start," Van Dyke added. "But the reality of the role that she has is when someone comes out of the game, we know what we're going to get from her. For me, the heart of great teams and great seasons are the stories where someone levels up and makes an impact. It's the glue that binds the whole team together."
With their 15-2-7 record, the Huskies are just three wins away from claiming the national crown. However, they're not looking any further ahead than Friday afternoon's showdown on Duke's Freeman Field inside Koskinen Stadium, between the 13th-ranked Huskies and No. 11 Blue Devils.
Last week's second-round and Sweet 16 games hung in the balance until the final kick, whether it was Alex Buck's in overtime against Arkansas or Lucy Newlin's shootout clincher against Virginia. They're not expecting it to be any easier – or any less tense going forward.
"I think we were super prepared going into the game. We were just looking forward to it." Nguyen said. "We're going to keep pushing toward our end goal of being national champions."
For the Washington Huskies – and especially for Avery Nguyen – that comes down to one clear-cut concept.
Never give up.
Not even when waiting for a phone call.
Pick any real-life situation, and Avery Nguyen takes the concept of stick-to-itiveness to a whole other level.
But while she was back home in Kansas after her freshman year at the University of Washington, she was starting to wonder if that call would ever come… the call that could possibly open a pathway to playing for the Huskies.
"I was still training with the (UW) club team. I would practice a couple times a week with them," said Nguyen, who joined that squad in 2022 after being told the varsity team's roster was full, thanks in part to the return of several players who had been granted an additional year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"I was training on my own. I was doing fitness things."
And Nguyen was reaching out to the Washington coaching staff, letting them know she was still here. Still working.
Still hoping for the chance to put on a UW kit.
"I e-mailed, but I didn't hear anything back. I said, 'Should I text?', but I didn't hear anything back," Nguyen said. "I was sort of giving up."
As the summer of 2023 moved toward its midpoint and Nguyen moved closer to starting her sophomore year as a pre-med student – and starting another year with the club team, having been their leading scorer as a freshman – her phone finally buzzed.
It was a text from head coach Nicole Van Dyke.
"She said, 'Would you like to potentially try out for the team?' Obviously, I said, 'Yes,' said Nguyen, her voice still filled with a tone of excitement even now as she recalled a moment that happened more than two years ago. "That's what I'd been hoping for."
At that point of course, Van Dyke had yet to see Nguyen play.
But she already had seen her persistence.
"We had gone from having a large roster to a small roster because all of those kids had graduated," said Van Dyke, who had asked one of the players working a Husky summer camp if the club team had any potential candidates who might make a good fit on the varsity squad. That player suggested Nguyen.
"I remember going back home that night and looking through my e-mail. You'll hear about a player and see if they reached out to you.
"We get thousands of e-mails (from players interested in joining the team). She had reached out a few times."
That's when Van Dyke, now in her sixth year at the Husky helm, reached back.
Right off, she was straight-forward about the situation. Nguyen would be the only player on the field who wasn't officially on the team.
At least not yet.
"I told her, 'Hey, no guarantees. But if this is something you want to see if it's going to work out for you and for us, I can offer you this 10-day tryout," she said. "I told her it was going to be awkward because she was the only one not on the team. I said, 'Just come in and work hard and be you.'"
From that tenuous time as a tryout candidate, Nguyen is now a rotation regular for Washington. She has played in 22 of the 24 games this season, including all three NCAA Tournament contests. Next up: Friday's Elite Eight showdown against Duke. Kickoff on the Blue Devils' home field in Durham, North Carolina, is at 1:00 p.m. PT.
Nguyen and her UW teammates reached this point with a pair of heart-pounding victories last weekend. The first was a 1-0 second-rounder against No. 4 Arkansas on a goal by Alex Buck at 8:01 into sudden-death overtime. The second was a 5-4 in a Sweet 16 penalty kick shootout against top seed Virginia following a 1-1 draw through 90 minutes of regulation time and 20 minutes of overtime.
"I don't think there were a ton of nerves. We were happy to be there and we deserved to be there," Nguyen said. "We were just playing for each other and playing for Mia (Hamant) and hoping to get a results."
Happy to be there" and "deserved to be there" also could apply to Nguyen getting onto the field for each of those wins – 35 minutes against Arkansas (with three shots taken) and 51 minutes against Virginia.
Matter of fact, as excited as she was to get that long-awaited phone call – or in this case, a long-awaited text – a couple summers ago, Van Dyke was just as excited to see what Nguyen could do and how she might blend in
It didn't take long for her to see it.
"Her club teammates said she's really committed and really driven – and the lights start flashing because that's about who we are," Van Dyke said. "Athletically, she's fit. She is so technical and so calm and composed on the field and makes great decisions There was enough for me to be like, 'wow, there's a high ceiling here.' The team was really young at the time and she could grow with them."
A two-time first-team all-state selection at Olathe High School in the Kansas town of the same name, the 5-8 forward had her sights set on playing college soccer. But the schools that she heard from during the recruiting process just didn't appeal to her for various reasons, whether it was academics, proximity, or other factors.
She applied at a couple of schools based solely on academics, with the hope that she could walk on or perhaps be a practice player. Nguyen, who is in pre-med, ultimately settled on Washington.
"I went to one of the soccer camps before my freshman year and Nicole talked to me for a little bit," she said. "But she said their roster was full with COVID seniors."
Indeed, that was an issue for just about every sport at every level of the NCAA. Any athlete who had lost a season because of the pandemic shutdown was allowed to retain that year of eligibility. While not everyone was able to take advantage of it (some athletes already had jobs or internships or grad programs lined up), many were able to come back for another year.
That meant fewer available roster spots for potential newcomers.
"After COVID, we had 36 or 37 kids on the team. What that does when you're talking about players coming into the team, that makes it hard to see how one might fit from a numbers standpoint," Van Dyke said. "You can look at it two ways. We missed the opportunity in her freshman year to get her. But this kind of completes the journey.
"Sometimes," Van Dyke added, "the journey is not linear. We're pretty fired up that she's with us and everything worked out the way it did."
Thrilled as Nguyen was to have the tryout invitation, the clock was ticking. Washington's report day was less than two weeks away.
"I had one and a half or two weeks to prepare, and then I drove up there from Kansas City," Nguyen said. "I was very nervous. It was just kind of scary going in and everyone had their spot on the team. It was hard. I didn't want to overstep and become friends and then get cut. It was kind of a weird spot to be in."
Nervous or not, Nguyen made a positive impression on Van Dyke.
Then in one of the team meetings, she got the word.
"Nicole announced, 'We would like to offer Avery a spot on the team. Do you accept?'
Nguyen's answer was an unequivocal 'yes' – albeit in her own personal style.
"It was an Avery moment," Van Dyke said. "She's not one who's going to be jumping around and being the center of attention. It was like, 'I did this.' It's really fun see how she has gelled with the team."
Having earned a spot on the team for the 2023 season, it was now up to Nguyen to earn some playing time.
During that first fall, she saw action in 12 of Washington's 19 games, starting two of them, and totaling 270 minutes on the field.
Nguyen played just one game in 2024. But this year, she has much busier with 22 games and one start, racking up 850 minutes heading into Friday's contest at Duke. She has tallied three goals and two assists, and has embraced the role of providing a boost off the bench whenever she takes the field.
"Going into the season, I wasn't expecting to play a ton," she said. "But the coaches sort of pushed me. I was kind of content with my role and being on the "game changers" (the team's term for substitution players). I was committed to my role and they wanted me to keep pushing and have higher goals.
"I just put in the work. When the time came, I was ready and just applied all the things that the coaches were asking of me… I like bringing energy off the bench and bringing some changes to the game."
Coaches across the sporting spectrum highly value players who have exactly that kind of mindset.
"At this point, she has been an absolute game changer for us this season," Van Dyke said. "When a kid responds every day with 'I just need to show up and be the best pink player (reserve player) that I can and be the best game changer that I can be for the team ' – she's incredible at that role.
"Like many of our game changers, she could start," Van Dyke added. "But the reality of the role that she has is when someone comes out of the game, we know what we're going to get from her. For me, the heart of great teams and great seasons are the stories where someone levels up and makes an impact. It's the glue that binds the whole team together."
With their 15-2-7 record, the Huskies are just three wins away from claiming the national crown. However, they're not looking any further ahead than Friday afternoon's showdown on Duke's Freeman Field inside Koskinen Stadium, between the 13th-ranked Huskies and No. 11 Blue Devils.
Last week's second-round and Sweet 16 games hung in the balance until the final kick, whether it was Alex Buck's in overtime against Arkansas or Lucy Newlin's shootout clincher against Virginia. They're not expecting it to be any easier – or any less tense going forward.
"I think we were super prepared going into the game. We were just looking forward to it." Nguyen said. "We're going to keep pushing toward our end goal of being national champions."
For the Washington Huskies – and especially for Avery Nguyen – that comes down to one clear-cut concept.
Never give up.
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