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Five former Stanford stars were among players assigned to teams in the new National Women's Soccer League, during a special national-team allocation process.

Fifty-five players from the national teams of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, were spread among eight franchises. Players and clubs submitted preferences and a panel of experts familiar with the player pools provided input on the players to form the allocations.

A college draft follows on Jan. 18, at the NSCAA Convention in Indianapolis.

The NWSL, which begins play this spring, was created and is administered by the U.S. Soccer Federation. The federations for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will subsidize the salaries of the national-team players.

Because she is a member of the Mexican national team, Stanford senior central defender Alina Garciamendez '13 is among the players to be subsidized by her national federation. The NSCAA first-team All-America was sent to the Washington Spirit and will not go through the college draft.

Other Stanford players allocated were goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart '04 (U.S.) to FC Kansas City, defender Rachel Buehler '07 (U.S.) to Portland Thorns FC, midfielder Teresa Noyola '12 (Mexico) to Seattle Reign FC, and outside back Kelly O'Hara '10 to Sky Blue FC.

Barnhart, Buehler, and O'Hara were members of the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, and Buehler is a U.S. co-captain.

Garciamendez started a school-record 101 matches and was a three-year captain at Stanford. She helped lead the Cardinal into the NCAA College Cup all four seasons -- winning four Pac-10/12 titles along the way -- and to the 2011 national championship.

— Stanford Athletics

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