Three Former Blue Devils in Women's World Cup
GoDuke The Magazine
This story originally appeared in the 14.12 Issue of GoDuke The Magazine – July 2023
Two of Duke’s all-time best women’s soccer teams continue to provide evidence of their greatness long after their seasons sailed into history.
The 2015 and 2017 Blue Devil squads that reached the College Cup produced three players who are set to participate on the sport’s biggest stage this summer — the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Toni Payne and Quinn were juniors and Kayla McCoy a freshman for the 2015 Duke team that upset reigning NCAA champion and top-seeded Florida State in the College Cup semifinals to earn a shot at the national title against Penn State. The Blue Devils came up short against the Nittany Lions, but two years later Quinn and McCoy had Duke back at the College Cup as the nation’s No. 1 seed, where they were eliminated by UCLA on penalty kicks in the semis.
Now Payne is representing Nigeria, Quinn plays for Canada and McCoy suits up for Jamaica as the Women’s World Cup takes center stage. In fact, Payne and Quinn are both in Group B and will be going head-to-head on the opening day of the event, July 20, in Melbourne.
“I’m thrilled for all of them, and very proud of them for what they’ve accomplished since they left Duke,” said Robbie Church, their head coach with the Blue Devils. “The World Cup is such a great event itself, with so much excitement around it, but to have your players involved with it is going to be special for our whole program.”
A Toronto native, Quinn has enjoyed the most decorated post-Duke soccer career of the trio of former teammates, with 89 appearances and 54 starts for the Canadian National Team since 2014. That includes two medal-winning trips to the Olympics with a gold in Tokyo (2021) and a bronze in Rio (2016) as well as a run in the last Women’s World Cup in France (2019).
During that time Quinn also came out as transgender, becoming the first transgender and first nonbinary athlete to win an Olympic medal.
At Duke Quinn’s career covered five seasons due to injury. As a redshirt senior for the 2017 squad, Quinn was first team All-America and the ACC midfielder of the year while leading Duke to a 23-2-1 record and a perfect 10-0-0 mark in the ACC. Quinn was the third overall pick of the 2018 NWSL draft and has been a stalwart for OL Reign in Seattle since 2019. OL Reign won the NWSL Shield in 2022.
Quinn
CANADA / Midfield
- Duke: 2013-2017
- College Cup 2015, 2017
- Two-time Olympic medalist
- Women’s World Cup 2019
- Pro Team: OL Reign (NWSL)
Toni Payne
NIGERIA / Midfield
- Duke: 2013-2016
- College Cup 2015
- First Women’s World Cup
- Pro Team: Sevilla (Spain)
Kayla McCoy McKenna
JAMAICA / Forward
- Duke: 2015-2018
- College Cup 2015 & 2017
- Women’s World Cup 2019
- Suffered injury
- Pro Team: Rangers (Scotland)
Payne was in the same 2013 recruiting class as Quinn and played in 90 matches with 86 starts over her four years, scoring 23 goals with 21 assists. She was a first-team All-ACC player as a senior in 2016 and may best be remembered for her clinching goal at the end of the 2015 semifinals against Florida State.
A native of Birmingham, Ala., Payne has spent her professional career overseas and has played for Sevilla in Spain the last few seasons. Her parents were born in Nigeria. This will be her first World Cup playing for that country.
“Toni Payne has had an unbelievable professional career,” Church noted. “A coach in our league, Randy Waldrum from Pittsburgh, is the head coach of the Nigerian National Team and she’s been involved with them for four or five years and just has excelled. It’s been fun to watch her and catch up with her, and to see how she’s expanded as a young lady has been fantastic too.”
McCoy, from Lincolnwood, Ill., is eligible to play for Jamaica since both of her grandparents were born there. She is now known as Kayla McKenna, after marrying former Duke men’s soccer captain Ciaran McKenna last year. Her husband is from Scotland, and Kayla has been playing professionally for the Scottish club Rangers recently, after starting her pro career as a second round draft pick by Houston in the NWSL.
A two-time All-ACC first team selection during her four years at Duke, McCoy was a first-team All-America and the ACC scholar-athlete of the year as a senior in 2018, when she was second in the league in scoring with 32 points. She was part of the winningest class in program history with 68 victories during her tenure.
In 82 games McCoy totaled 38 goals to rank as the No. 4 goal scorer in school history. She posted the first goal in Duke’s 2-0 College Cup upset of Florida State in 2015, and two years later had the game-winner against Virginia to secure the Blue Devils’ perfect 10-0-0 finish in the ACC.
McCoy previously made the Jamaican National Team for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France but suffered an injury just before the event began and had to be replaced on the roster. So her World Cup debut will come July 23 when Jamaica takes on France in Sydney.
“She’s been very resilient,” Church said. “She’s been playing and traveling with the Jamaican team for just about all the events over the last four years when she’s been healthy. To see her make that final roster was really great. To be able to put the jersey on for the World Cup this time, I’m really happy for her.”
Church smiles when he remembers the talent on the field in 2015 when all three of his future World Cup participants were playing together in Duke uniforms. That squad started the ACC campaign 0-2-2 but then made some adjustments to its offense and defense, knocked off UNC, went 4-1-1 down the stretch in conference play and got hot in the NCAA Tournament.
“We started off playing really good soccer but we weren’t getting results,” Church said. “We had Toni on one side, we had Imani Dorsey on the other, we had Kayla up front and we had Quinn sitting in as a central part of midfield and that was probably the most talented team that we’ve had at Duke. And it all came together about halfway through the year. Toward the end of September it absolutely started to click and the talent really showed through and we had an unbelievable run to the College Cup.”
And now eight years later, three of the principles from that club are eyeing a run at their sport’s most prestigious Cup.
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