Jan. 29, 2016
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State women's soccer head coach Mike Friesen announced Friday that Nicole Robertson, Bailey Cook and Camryn Wendlandt have joined the program. The trio is enrolled in classes and will be eligible to play in 2016.
"We are really excited to have three players of this caliber join us mid-year," Friesen said. "Nicole is a great addition to our midfield. She is technical, athletic and has an excellent work rate. Bailey will add to our back-line strength and will be able to play as a center back and a wide back. Bailey is athletic, physical and adds to our possession style, as well as attack out of the back. Camryn, meanwhile, has great ability in the air, great speed and is good on the ball. That combination will make her a versatile player that will be very valuable to our team.
"Having two players graduate early (Cook and Wendlandt) to come to school in the spring is a huge advantage for our team and for those players," Friesen added. "We are really excited to develop our team this spring and be able to put ourselves in a position to compete at the highest level this fall."
Robertson returns to Southern California after a two-year stint at Purdue where she played in 34 games and received the starting nod on 20 different occasions. Hailing from Temecula, the midfielder/forward accumulated two goals and four assists for eight points.
As a freshman, Robertson played in all 19 games, starting seven times, and scored her lone goal in the victory over Ohio. Her only assist that season also came against the Bobcats. Last season as a sophomore, she had the game-winner and an assist in Purdue's comeback win over Xavier, and had a career-high two assists in the win at Montana. All told, she played in 15 of the Boilermakers' 18 games and started 13 times.
Prior to heading to West Lafayette, Indiana, Robertson was a standout at Temecula Valley High where she scored 38 goals and had 29 assists in three seasons. The two-time all-Southeastern League performer helped Temecula Valley win the league as a sophomore and finish in second place her final two years. Before enrolling at Temecula Valley, Robertson attended Linfield Christian as a freshman and went on to score 29 times.
"I grew up here (in Southern California) and I feel comfortable (at San Diego State)," Robertson said of her decision to transfer to SDSU. "The team and the coaches are really close and are one unit, and I really like that."
Cook arrives on The Mesa from Aurora, Colorado where she graduated from Grandview High. A four-year varsity team member, Cook was a 2015 first-team all-Centennial League and Aurora Sentinel All-City performer while helping the Wolves to a Class 5A state title and MaxPreps' No. 1 national ranking. In Grandview's journey to the state championship, Cook scored nine goals with four coming in the postseason, including three in the Wolves' first-round game.
At the club level, Cook topped the assists list for Real Colorado and helped her team to a third-place finish at ECNL Nationals in 2015. This happened after a seventh-place effort in 2013 and a runner-up performance in 2014.
"I came to San Diego State at semester after graduating high school early," Cook said. "I think it's a huge opportunity to get ahead of my classes heading into the fall and it gives me an opportunity to prove myself and get accustomed to the new classes and the soccer 24/7 lifestyle."
Wendlandt, meanwhile, joins the aforementioned pair and the rest of the Aztecs on campus from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. As a four-year varsity player at Lake City High, she helped the Timberwolves to the 2012 state championship, to the finals of the 2015 Idaho 5A postseason tournament and three straight league titles (2013-15). After guiding Lake City to a 14-1-2 record as senior, she was named to the all-state first team and to the all-IEL first team for the second consecutive season. A 2015 Gatorade Player of the Year nominee and two-time team MVP, Wendlandt was also a standout in the classroom, earning her way into the National Honor Society all while competing in track and field and basketball.
"I graduated high school (early) then moved to San Diego State (two days later) and it's been a really big transition for me, but I just feel really blessed that I got this opportunity to play at a such a good program and such a good school, so I'm excited to see what SDSU has in store for me in the next four years," Wendlandt said. "I'm looking to get better physically and tactically with soccer and I'm looking to get further in my plan for graduating from San Diego State with a business degree."
The trio joins an SDSU program that has won the last four Mountain West regular-season championships and three of the last four MW tournament titles. In 2016, the Aztecs are scheduled to return 40 of their 41 goals from a season ago (97.6 percent), 33 of their 35 assists (94.3 percent) and 113 of their 117 points (96.6 percent).