Baton Rouge, La. – LSU soccer head coach Sian Hudson has announced that grad transfer Athena Kuehn will join the program for the upcoming 2021 fall season. Kuehn comes to Baton Rouge after playing four seasons at the University of Minnesota. She will suit up this fall for the Tigers and has one season of eligibility remaining.

“We are thrilled to be adding Athena to our Tiger family,” Hudson mentioned. “She has been a standout performer at Minnesota, both on the field and in the classroom, and she will come in and elevate the level of our team with immediate effect.”

A player with championship pedigree, Kuehn anchored a backline that led the Gophers to the 2018 Big Ten Tournament title. Minnesota did not concede a goal in three matches (290 minutes of action) and knocked off No. 15 Penn State via penalty kicks in the championship match. She served as Minnesota’s team captain during the 2021 spring season.

A native of Colorado Springs, Colo., Kuehn logged a total of 5,828 minutes on the pitch during her time in Minneapolis. She played in 73 total matches, starting 53 of those, and she helped the Gophers rack up 27 shutouts over the past four seasons including six this spring in 12 matches.

“Her technical ability, work rate and overall competitiveness are some of her best traits and she will add a different dimension to our midfield unit with her box to box mentality and ability to strike a ball from distance,” Hudson said. “She’s a player of high character who has experienced success at the highest levels of both club and college soccer and will lead by example in all that she does.”

Kuehn has three career goals and three career assists to her name for a career point total of nine. Career goal No. 1 came on Sept. 24, 2017, in the 39th minute of play against Michigan State. Two of her three goals served as game winners for Minnesota, and both of those came during her junior season in the fall of 2019.

A four-time CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree, Kuehn is the daughter of Shay and Bernhard Kuehn. Before her playing days at Minnesota, Kuehn was a talented multisport athlete that excelled in soccer, track, and cross country at Pine Creek High School. She played her senior season for Pine Creak in 2017 and earned all-conference and all-state honors. She helped her club soccer team, the Pride Predators 99, to four State Cup championships in Colorado from 2013-16.