It was as if she'd never left.
York University Lions women's soccer player Nia Fleming-Thompson returned to U SPORTS in 2024 looking to pick up right where she left off after a stellar rookie season in 2022 that earned her OUA West Rookie of the Year, a spot on the U SPORTS all-rookie team and a trip to the NCAA.Â
After spending the 2023 season south of the border, Fleming-Thompson returned to the Lions this past season as they key piece of a team looking to return to the postseason. Not only did she duplicate her rookie season – she exceeded it.
After scoring nine goals in her rookie season, she buried 12 goals this season, good enough to earn her OUA West MVP and a U SPORTS first team all-Canadian selection.
Fleming-Thompson's 12 goals, third-most in the country behind only OUA East MVP Cassandra Provost of the Ottawa Gee-Gees and U SPORTS Player of the Year Alliyah Rowe of the Cape Breton Capers, came in eight different matches. That included each of the first five to start the season and eight of her first nine overall. The biology major and Mississauga, Ont., native scored a career-high four goals in York's 12-0 win over Algoma on Sept. 22.
The striker becomes the first Lion since Jotam Chouhan in 2022 to earn first-team all-Canadian status. She is the 17th different player all-time to crack the nation's first team. Should she earn another spot on a U SPORTS first team roster, will become the sixth different player to accomplish the feat on more than one occasion, joining Portia Barriffe (1988, 1991), Ciara Gaizutis (2002, 2004), Stefania Morra (2007-08), Nour Ghoneim (2014-16) and Sarah Wong (2014-15).
