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O'Hara crosses Bay to FC Gold Pride

With the No. 3-overall selection in the 2010 Women’s Professional Soccer Draft, FC Gold Pride selected Stanford forward and MAC Hermann Trophy winner Kelley O’Hara.

The move keeps O’Hara close to home, as Stanford is some 20 minutes across the San Fransisco Bay from FC Gold Pride’s new home stadium in Hayward, Calif. The selection also allows O’Hara to reunite with FC Gold Pride Head Coach Albertin Montoya, who was a volunteer assistant coach at Stanford in O’Hara’s junior season.

It also helps O’Hara stay close to her fan base, which has served as a support system at Stanford.

“I am so excited,” she said. “I am just thrilled to be able to stay in the Bay Area and to play under Albertin and in a place that I am just comfortable in right now. All my friends are there, so it’s exciting.”

Stanford teammate Ali Riley was selected No. 10-overall by FC Gold Pride, meaning both players will get to stay local and continue their careers alongside each other. Montoya hopes that Riley will help tighten up a back line that gave up 28 goals in 2009, the second most in the league. He also obviously has a high opinion of O’Hara.

“I think Kelly O’Hara is the most prolific senior coming out this year,” Montoya said. “I’ve worked with her in the past. I know what she can bring to us on the field and off the field. I don’t think there is a better forward in this senior class and she is going to score goals for us. She has proven she can score goals at every level – national team, college, and everywhere she’s played, so that’s something we needed. She is going to complement Christine Sinclair very well. They are two different types of players so they can play very well off each other and I’m looking forward to that.”

In 2009, O’Hara scored 26 goals and added 13 assists (65 pts.) in 26 games. She said that she had gotten word from Montoya last week that the team was looking to select her at No. 3, and now that everything has played out as expected, she can rest a little easier.

Until Sunday, that is, when she heads back to California for the United States Women’s National Team training camp.

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