Jen Thais

Kansas State

Sep 18 (Thu)

7 p.m.

Position:
Midfielder
Height:
5-6
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Mission Viejo, Calif.
High School:
Mission Viejo

2002 Big 12 All-Academic first team
2002 Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll
2003 Soccer America Team of the Week (Nov. 3)
2003 Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week (Nov. 4)
2003 Big 12 All-Academic first team
2003 Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll
2004 Big 12 All-Academic second team
2004 second-team All-Big 12

Senior (2004): Thais had a breakout senior season with seven goals and four assists for 18 points and 37 shot attempts, while starting 20 games and appearing in 21. She led the Buffs to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and 15 wins as she earned second-team All-Big 12. Recovering from offseason ACL surgery, she was back on the field for the third game of the season and in the lineup for the fourth when she scored the first goal in a 4-0 win against Eastern Michigan on Sept. 4. She had a three-point game with a goal and an assist in a 3-0 victory against Northern Colorado and scored vs. No. 7 Texas A&M on Oct. 8. Thais scored the first hat trick in CU history with three goals in a 7-0 win against Texas Tech on Oct. 17. She backed up that performance with the first three-assist game in CU history, while scoring the first goal of the game for five points in a 4-0 win against Oklahoma on Oct. 22.

Junior (2003): Though overlooked on the postseason honors list, make no mistake about it... “She was the straw that stirred the drink,” according to head coach Bill Hempen. Thais quietly got things going out of her outside midfield frame. In the most productive of her three seasons at CU, she had four goals (including the game-winner against No. 17 Missouri) and two dishes for a career best 10 points (which ranks 16th all-time). She started all but two games of the season (and her career), when she sat out of the Oklahoma and Minnesota weekend due to a concussion. She was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 4 when just 60 seconds after Nebraska took a 1-0 lead, she scored the equalizer against then-No. 22 Nebraska in the 17th minute, then 95 seconds later assisted on Katie Griffin’s game-winner. She netted four goals during the spring season, scoring against UNLV, Northern Colorado, Loyola Marymount and the U-19 National Team.   She tore her ACL during the California swing of the spring schedule and was initially predicted to be sidleined six-plus months.

Sophomore (2002): CU’s starting outside midfielder didn’t have a regular back-up. She bettered her point total from ?01 with 9 in ?02, and was one of just three Buffs to get in on a score and an assist in a single game, doing so against Maine. She took a career-best 5 shots in two different games, 4 in three. She had the lone goal of the Ok-State game, off a broken up free kick in the 87th minute. It was a long overdue score, her first since converting on a penalty kick vs. Maine two months earlier.

Freshman (2001): One of three players to start all 16 contests, Thais was Colorado’s leading scorer with three goals, an assist and seven points. She recorded her first career goal in the 58th minute at Fresno State and her second with 20 seconds remaining in regulation to send the Buffs’ match vs. No. 9 A&M into overtime. (third in the loss at Ok-State).

High School: Thais was a second team all-league selection in her sophomore and junior seasons, while also earning second team All-California Interscholastic Federation her junior year. She would repeat her first-team all-league and all-CIF honor her senior campaign while adding first-team all-county to her resume while pacing MVHS to undefeated league and CIF seasons and a No. 5 national ranking. Her high school team also won the CIF championship her freshman and senior seasons. Thais was on the ODP team in 1994 and 1996. Her So Cal Blues club team was the Western Regional Finalist and league champs her freshman year and State Cup Finalists her sophomore year.

In The Classroom: An accounting major, she has eclipsed the 3.0 mark five of six semesters, earning Commissioner’s Honor Roll distinction all three years and Academic All-Big 12 as a sophomore and junior.   She will carry a better than 3.0 gpa into her senior campaign. She received the McCallister Scholar Athlete in the spring of '03.

Personal: Born New Year’s Day, 1983 in Mission Viejo, Calif., Jennifer Michelle Thais is the daughter of Jeff and Kari Thais. Her older brother Chris attends the Art Institute of Pasadena and her younger brother, Daniel, is a freshman at Orange Coast College. In the spring of 2003 she was the junior varsity coach at Boulder High School. Actively involved in CU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.