Jan. 20, 2012

LOS ANGELES - U.S. Soccer announced its annual awards on Friday and UCLA's Sydney Leroux was named the Young Female Athlete of the Year. She is the third Bruin player to ever win the award, following Danesha Adams in 2006 and Lauren Cheney in 2007.

Leroux secured the award after playing for the U.S. WNT and U.S. U-23 WNT in 2011. She is the USA's all-time leading scorer in U-20 Women's World Cup play with 10 goals. She is among the most capped U-20 WNT players ever with 36 games and is the all-time leading scorer for the U.S. at that level with a whopping 30 goals.

Leroux is coming off her senior year at UCLA where she scored 16 goals en route to a 16-1-4 record. She was the top selection by the Atlanta Beat in the 2012 Women's Professional Soccer Draft on Jan. 13.

The official U.S. Soccer release, featuring a complete list of all the 2011 winners, can be found HERE.

YOUNG FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR 1998: Cindy Parlow
1999: Lorrie Fair
2000: Aly Wagner
2001: Aleisha Cramer
2002: Lindsay Tarpley
2003: Cat Reddick
2004: Heather O'Reilly
2005: Lori Chalupny
2006: Danesha Adams
2007: Lauren Cheney
2008: Kristie Mewis
2009: Tobin Heath
2010: Bianca Henninger
2011: Sydney Leroux