Sydney Watts
Sydney Watts (born February 16, 2005) is an American college soccer player who plays as a striker for the Vanderbilt Commodores. She was born in California and grew up in Lenexa, Kansas. Watts is 5'9" tall and wears number 15 for Vanderbilt.
She started playing soccer very young, first as a central midfielder before switching to striker. In high school at St. Thomas Aquinas in Overland Park, Kansas, she helped her team win three straight Class 5A state titles and earned top honors such as Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year. She played club soccer with KC Fusion and Sporting Blue Valley, earning ECNL all-conference honors, and also played summer soccer with Kansas City Current II in the WPSL. Top Drawer Soccer placed her among the top-30 recruits in the 2023 class.
Watts joined Vanderbilt in 2023. Her freshman year was impacted by an ankle injury, and she appeared in 15 games as a substitute. In 2024 she became a starter, leading the Commodores with 9 goals in 21 games and earning third-team All-SEC. She scored in the NCAA tournament and helped Vanderbilt reach the third round for the first time.
Her breakout season came in 2025, when she led the SEC with 16 goals in 24 games. She was named first-team All-American, first-team All-SEC, and SEC Forward of the Year. She helped Vanderbilt win the SEC tournament, scoring in the semifinal and in the final shootout. In the NCAA tournament, the Commodores reached the quarterfinals. Watts also trained with the U.S. under-20 team in April 2023.
She is the daughter of Wendy and Rian Watts; both played college sports at Baker University, and her sister Lexi played college soccer at Kansas.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:50 (CET).