AUSTIN, Texas – Natalie Barnouw of the MIT women's soccer team has been named the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Women's Soccer Team Member of the Year as well as a First Team Academic All-American as the organization released its 2025 Women's Soccer Academic All-America teams. Joining Barnouw are Leena Mehendale and Madeline Seebeck, who were both voted Second Team Academic All-Americans.
Barnouw becomes the second Engineer to earn Team Member of the Year, joining Maya Neilan who earned the award in 2021. Barnouw is now a three-time Academic All-American, earning First Team honors in 2023 and Second Team honors in 2024. She is the fifth three-time Academic All-American in program history. Barnouw, a Computational Biology major, is a four-time NEWMAC Academic All-Conference member and was named the 2024 NEWMAC Student-Athlete of the Year as well as a Top 30 Finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year. This season on the field she set new program records in career points, single season goals, and points mand finished second all-time in career goals. Outside of soccer, Barnouw is the Food Security Chair and IO of the Undergraduate Association and is a visiting graduate scholar at the Caffarelli Lab, Undergraduate researcher at the Amorim Lab.
Mehendale earns her first Academic All-America honor as the Biological Engineering major earned the NEWMAC Laurels of Academic for having the highest GPA of a competing player at the NEWMAC Tournament. She was also named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player as she helped lead MIT to the program's third-straight tournament championship during which the team did not surrender a goal during their three games. Overall, the Engineers had one of the best defenses in Division III, leading the way with 20 shutouts. Off the field Mehendale is involved in the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and Levitch Leadership Lab and is also the Director of Philanthropy for MIT Alpha Phi.
Seebeck, was voted to her first All-America team as the Mechanical Engineering set a career-high with 10 goals and 23 assists this season. She was a valuable part of one of the best defenses in the country as MIT allowed just seven goals in 27 games with a Division III best 20 shutouts. Seebeck was named a United Soccer Coaches Fourth Team All-American and earned her second First Team NEWMAC All-Conference nod. Off the pitch Seebeck is involved in an Undergraduate research opportunity optimizing hydrogen microgrids at the systemic level under Prof Amos Winter and is an AFROTC Cadet Training Officer in and an AFROTC Wellness/Mentorship Officer for Cadets from MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Wellesley in 2024 and 2025.
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