Soccer adds depth at goalkeeper for 2022 season

Arkansas soccer has announced the addition of two transfer goalies for the 2022 season.

Senior Grace Barbara joins the Hogs from Princeton, where she started in all 16 matches in 2021 and earned first-team All-Ivy and first-team United Soccer Coaches All-East Region honors. She notched seven solo shutouts and combined for two more, accruing an Ivy League-leading 0.90 goals against average with an 11-3-1 record.

She was in goal for the team’s 1-1 tie against then-No. 8 Georgetown on Sept. 5 and in the team’s win at then-No. 9 Rutgers four days later.

Barbara was also in goal for all 90 minutes of the Tigers’ 2-0 victory over Vermont in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

The Delray Beach, Florida native plans on attending medical school and she is currently majoring in biology at Arkansas. Last summer, she worked in orthopedic research in California on the effect of injury and removal from sport on athletes’ mental health and conducted research on coral for her senior thesis.

Sophomore Sierra Cota-Yarde joins the Razorbacks from Prairie View A&M, where she played in seven matches and started in five as a freshman last season, earning back-to-back SWAC Goalkeeper of the Week honors.

A Portugal U19 Women’s National Team member, she made her debut in a friendly match on Feb. 22 against Austria.

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, she won the Provincial Summer Games with her club team, the North Toronto Nitros in 2019.

Cota-Yarde also competed in Taekwondo for six years, earning her black belt.

She intends to continue studying psychology at Arkansas while strengthening the goalkeeping core.

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