COD Women's Soccer defender/midfielder Zaynah Cortez (Palm Springs H.S.) has signed a letter of intent with Mount Marty University.

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Cortez, from Palm Springs H.S., was finished her sophomore season starting 11 of the 14 games she played in for the Roadrunners in 2022, holding down the back line that helped lockdown opposing offenses and led to seven clean sheets. During her freshman campaign, Cortez started in 17 of 21 games for Desert and was one of the key reasons the Roadrunners secured a record ten shutouts during the 2021 season.

"I'm super blessed to announce that I will be committing to Mount Marty University." Cortez continued, "My time here at COD has been amazing, I had three different head coaches in the past two years and many different assistant coaches. They've all been so great and uplifting and honestly, I'm just super glad that I met them. Another shout out to the Athletic Trainers, because they've helped me through everything. My second year, I ended up breaking my wrist, so they were always there for me, just in the healing process and everything like that. And honestly, I'm just blessed to share this amazing thing with them."

Later, Cortez explained why she chose Mount Marty, "I chose Mount Marty because they just seemed like such an amazing program to build with, the girls are amazing there. And the coaches have been so consistent and helped me go through a lot of things. Thank you. Go Lancers!"

Mount Marty University is located in Yankton, South Dakota, which is about 2 miles north of the Nebraska-South Dakota border and about 315 miles southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The MMU Lancers play at Crane-Youngworth Field and the team is coached by a head coach with Coachella Valley ties, Cynthia Chavez, in her 3rd year with the Lancers. In the 2022 season, the Lancers concluded the year with a 1-13-2 overall record, with a 0-12 record in Conference play, finishing the season in 13th place. MMU is in the Great Plains Athletic Conference of NAIA.

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Information, Photos & Story provided by COD Sports Information.