Fresh off a national championship win with UCLA women’s soccer, Maricarmen Reyes has signed with Liga MX club Tigres Femenil.
The 22-year-old midfielder scored the game-winning goal in extra time to clinch the 3-2 win against North Carolina in the NCAA title game in early December. Born in California to Mexican parents, she also plays for the Mexico women’s national team.
Un nuevo año comienza y nuevos retos con él, bienvenida @reyeszmari 💛✨#PerfilTigre 🐯 pic.twitter.com/SB3MCWXqvk
— Tigres Femenil 🐯 (@TigresFemenil) December 28, 2022
Reyes is following the same path as former Bruins teammate Mia Fishel, who signed with Tigres in January.
Fishel, 21, was selected fifth overall by the Orlando Pride in the NWSL Draft, but she chose to join Liga MX, a fast-paced league in which young strikers can thrive — and Fishel certainly has.
She became the first foreign-born player to win the league’s Golden Boot with 17 goals, and she helped lead the club to its fifth Liga MX title since the league was founded in 2016. She ranked No. 88 on the Guardian’s top 100 players of 2022.
Fishel’s success has made her absence from the U.S. women’s national team noticeable, though USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski has said she “is on our depth chart.”
Reyes did not put her hat in the ring for the upcoming NWSL draft, signing with Tigres even before the draft on Jan. 12. She will join Fishel in powering the Tigres attack in 2023.