North Vancouver, B.C. native Kristie Elliott made NCAA history on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Elliott became the first Canadian female to score a point in an NCAA game, sending a late second quarter point after attempt through the uprights for Simon Fraser University against Linfield University.
Canada’s only NCAA football team suffered a 56-20 loss, but Elliott’s kicks were the highlights. She made two of her three extra point attempts and missed a 39-yard field goal.
It was the second career NCAA game for Elliott after she redshirted in 2019 and 2020. The sophomore kicker has been working to earn a spot on the roster and it paid off with a first in sports history for Canada.
According to Elliott, it all started with a bet, she told Howard Tsumura of Varsity Letters in August 2019.
“I bet a (Simon Fraser football) player that I could kick a 40-yard field goal,” continues the 2018 graduate of North Vancouver’s Windsor Secondary, who spent her first season atop Burnaby Mountain as a redshirt freshman hurdler on the track team.
“I wasn’t even sure I could actually do it.”
She had played 12 years of house-level soccer on the North Shore “for fun.” That bet was more about friendly banter.
Yet the more Elliott thought it through, the more she realized she actually wanted to give it a try.
“So in April, around exam time, I decided I would.”
Two years ago, she had never kicked a football and now Elliott is making her dreams come true. The five-foot-eight, 140-pound Elliott appears to have lots more scoring opportunities ahead.
