Anna Podojil

College career Soccer

Podojil started all 23 games and scored 14 goals with 7 assists in her freshman season in 2019. She helped the Arkansas Razorbacks win the first of three consecutive Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular-season titles. In the SEC tournament, she scored twice in the semifinals against Florida, sending Arkansas to its fourth of six consecutive SEC title games, all of which the team would lose. Podojil was named first-team All-SEC (after ranking second in the conference in goals), became the first Razorback to win SEC Freshman of the Year, and was one of the program's first two United Soccer Coaches All-American selections, picking up third-team honors with Haley VanFossen.

Podojil scored 7 goals and provided a career-high 10 assists in 16 games in her sophomore season in 2020. She was ranked by TopDrawerSoccer as the fourth-best and ninth-best player in the country after her sophomore and junior seasons respectively.

Podojil was named first-team All-SEC for the fourth consecutive year, and received third-team USC All-American honors, after scoring 8 goals and making 6 assists in 22 games in her senior season in 2023. Although the Razorbacks lost their SEC tournament opener, the team made its second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight. She used an extra year of eligibility, granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to play a fifth season in 2023. She scored 5 goals with 6 assists in 20 games, earning second-team All-SEC honors. She had 50 goals and 35 assists in 102 appearances (all starts). She did not report to the Spirit's preseason because of her knee injury. She went through recovery in Arkansas and afterwards decided to return to her track and field roots with Arkansas's nationally ranked team, although she did not rule out pursuing professional soccer in the future. She had spoken with the track head coach about joining the team earlier, but the pandemic moving part of her sophomore soccer season to the spring made it not work out. She later helped set the college record in the 4 × 800 meter relay (8:16.12), running 2:05.5 in her leg. She primarily competed in the 800 meters, recording a best time of 2:02.12 at the SEC indoor championship finals, good for fourth place.

International career

Podojil was called into training camps with the United States under-18 team in 2017.

Personal life

Podojil is the oldest of three children born to Dan and Rebecca Podojil. Her parents were track and field athletes at Miami University in Ohio, both in hurdling and her father also in decathlon. Her younger sister, Elle, played soccer with her at Arkansas for four years, and her younger brother, John, runs track at Miami. Following her college track season, she opted not to pursue professional soccer and went into nursing.

Honors and awards

Arkansas Razorbacks Southeastern Conference: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 SEC tournament runner-up: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023

Individual First-team All-American: 2020 Second-team All-American: 2019, 2022 First-team All-SEC: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 Second-team All-SEC: 2023 SEC Forward of the Year: 2020 SEC Freshman of the Year: 2019 SEC tournament all-tournament team: 2019, 2020