KATIE JOHNSON CHALLENGER
Women's Soccer 2001 - 2004
KATIE JOHNSON was the unflappable, award-winning goalkeeper on a UT Dallas women’s soccer team that won or shared two American Southwest Conference championships and advanced to the “Sweet 16” of the NCAA National Championship Tournament in 2002.
Johnson was named to American Southwest Conference all-conference teams each of her four years with the Comets, who lost just 16 of 83 games and posted 52 shutouts during her career in the net. In her four seasons, UTD lost just four conference games.
A product of Irving MacArthur High School, Johnson started her freshman year at UTD in 2001 as a position player, recording one assist before she moved into the net for the remainder of her career. As a sophomore in 2002, she was the primary goalkeeper as UTD rattled off a 16-4-2 record, won an outright ASC Championship and advanced two rounds into the national NCAA tournament.
Katie played all 39 games during the final two years of her career in net, and capped it all off making 14 saves in the 2004 ASC championship game against Hardin-Simmons – a game that ended in a 1-1 double-overtime tie before HSU advanced to the NCAA tournament in a penalty kick shootout.
Johnson was named first-team All-ASC her final two seasons and picked up National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-Region honors in 2002 and 2003. In addition to several individual game and season records, she still ranks first in the UTD women’s soccer career record book in saves (256), wins (48), games played (82) and shutouts (41).
Johnson earned a psychology degree from UT Dallas in 2005 and worked for the Boy Scouts of America before returning to UTD as an Assistant Women’s Soccer and Tennis Coach in 2007. She plans to be married December 2010.
