Elise Krieghoff

Classroom

Cal Poly forward Elise Krieghoff is an agricultural communications major who plans to graduate in June 2016. In addition to pursuing soccer professionally, she aspires to work in agriculture journalism or public relations.To that end, in the summer of 2015, she completed a three-month internship with Ott & Davison Consulting LLC, a food safety and security company in Fresno, Calif. Krieghoff, the all-sports overall Cal Poly Women’s Student-Athlete of the Year in 2014-15, also has belonged to the Cal Poly Entrepreneurs club.

Character

Earlier this year, Krieghoff helped organize community response to a tragedy that struck her family in Clovis, California. In February, an alleged drunken driver ran a red light and collided with another car carrying Krieghoff’s older sister, Emily, as a passenger. The victims’ car’s driver — Krieghoff’s friend Molly Griffin, 23 — died in the crash, while Emily Krieghoff survived in critical condition. During her sister’s recovery process in the month after the fatal accident, Krieghoff helped establish the Emily Krieghoff Blood Drive. The event started through a partnership between the Central California Blood Center and Emily’s alma mater Fresno Christian High School. This not only was created to support blood donations for DUI victims, but also to reiterate awareness of the danger of impaired driving.

That May, Krieghoff also helped plan #PlayForMolly Day at Chukchansi Park in Fresno, where tribute was paid to Griffin and her family before Krieghoff’s Women’s Premier Soccer League summer club, the Fresno Freeze, played Tottenham Hotspur East Bay.

Community

In her time at Cal Poly, Krieghoff has participated in a variety of the program’s local volunteering endeavors. Such yearly efforts have included assisting Special Olympics of Southern California at the San Luis Obispo County-hosted Regional Games (setting up and overseeing competitions), reading to students at local elementary schools, inspecting and sorting food donated to San Luis Obispo Food Bank, and cleaning and arranging unsold items for Goodwill at the San Luis Obispo United Methodist Children’s Center’s annual spring rummage sales. Additionally, Krieghoff has helped instruct youth players at Cal Poly soccer camps during the offseason.

“Elise came to us as a very good soccer player and has grown into a successful and balanced student-athlete,” 24-year Cal Poly Head Coach Alex Crozier said. “She’s focused on becoming a leader, both on and off the field.”

Competition

A three-time All-Big West First Team performer, Krieghoff has played a pivotal role on Cal Poly’s women’s soccer team. Krieghoff’s 46 career goals were tied for the nation’s third-highest total among all active Division I players entering the 2015 season. The Big West Conference’s leading goal-scorer for three years in a row, Krieghoff earned the Disney/NSCAA National Player of the Week award on Sept. 23, 2014, following her five-goal performance against Fresno State (the most scored by a collegian since 2012). Krieghoff, a three-time TopDrawerSoccer.com National Team of the Week selection since 2013, now owns six different school goals records whether in a single-game, season or career context. Her game-winner at UC Riverside as a junior (the 45th tally of her career) was picked as one of the Top 10 Plays of the Day by ESPN’s SportsCenter on Oct. 19, shown at No. 3 on that evening’s show. Krieghoff was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2013 and its Freshman of the Year in 2012. Additionally, Krieghoff already holds the conference’s all-time record for most player-of-the-week accolades earned with eight.

As a sophomore, she led the nation in goals-per-match average, scoring 1.105 strikes per game, and was invited to the U.S. Women’s National Team U-23 training camp held in Chula Vista, Calif. in June 2014.

Including winning the 2013 Big West regular-season championship with a 7-1-0 record, Krieghoff has led the Mustangs to an 18-5-2 mark in conference play over the past three seasons, equating to a .760 total winning percentage (ranking No. 1 in the conference throughout that time).