University of North Texas Athletics
Soccer Adds Oklahoma State Transfers
12/20/2021 2:18:00 PM | Women's Soccer
DENTON — The 16-time conference champion North Texas women's soccer team has added a pair of Oklahoma State transfers.
Big 12 All-Freshman Team honoree Grace Dennis and fellow Dallas Fort Worth native Hannah Russell have signed to the Mean Green announced head coach John Hedlund.
Both Dennis and Russell were part of the OSU program for two years. Dennis will join UNT though with four years of eligibility after missing all of last season with an injury. Russell will join North Texas with three years of eligibility.
Dennis was named to the 2020-21 Big 12 All-Freshman Team two seasons ago. The Allen native and 2020 Allen High School graduate played in 14 games as a freshman and started five of them. She averaged 41 minutes per match. The midfielder recorded her first career assist on Aug. 18, 2020 in a 2-1 victory over Iowa St.
At the club and high school level, Dennis was a standout for Sting ECNL. She helped lead the club to the ECNL Texas Conference championship in 2018 and 2019 and was part of the U.S. Club Soccer id2 Training Camp from 2014-16. She was an all-district performer in both of her prep seasons at Allen High School and helped the team to a district title and regional quarterfinals appearance in 2018. She was listed as the No. 32 overall recruit in the state of Texas for 2020 by TopDrawerSoccer.com and held offers out of high school from Alabama, Memphis, Pepperdine, TCU and Texas along with Oklahoma State.
Russell also joined the OSU program in 2020 and played in four matches as a freshman including in the Cowgirls' NCAA Tournament match against South Alabama where she played a season-high 23 minutes.
The defender saw action in two matches this past season as a sophomore.
Russell, who is a Flower Mound native, was club mates with Dennis and like Dennis was a standout for Sting ECNL. She helped lead them to the ECNL national semifinals in 2019. In high school Russell racked up 75 career goals at Coram Deo Academy and was named an all-state performer three times. She also earned all-district honors four times and was the District MVP twice. She was the No. 35 overall recruit in the state of Texas for 2020 by TopDrawerSoccer.com.
OSU had gone a combined 22-9-5 over the past two seasons with Dennis and Russell. The duo joins a Mean Green squad that has won more Conference USA women's soccer titles than any program in the league's 26-year history.
Dennis and Russell are the third and fourth Big 12 transfers to join the Mean Green this offseason. On Dec. 7 North Texas added TCU transfer Avery Barron and Kansas State transfer Lily Parker. Barron joins UNT after winning back-to-back Big 12 titles.
