Siri Mullinix

The glittering resume of Siri Mullinix includes a list of lofty achievements … winner of an Olympic Silver Medal, distinguished member of the US Women’s national team, NCAA national champion twice, NCYSA state cup champion four times, NC high school state champion once and stellar professional player.

Born in Denver, Colorado, Siri Lynn Mullinix grew up in Greensboro where she was an outstanding player as a youth. She was a member of the ‘78 Greensboro Twisters team that won the NC Youth Soccer State Cup championship four times, in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1995. The team also was a semifinalist in the Southern Regional Championship in 1992 and 1995. In 1995, she was honored as MVP of the Under-17 State Cup and at the regional tournament she was named the Outstanding Goalkeeper and also won the FIFA Fair Play Sportsmanship Award.

As a high school player at Jamestown Ragsdale HS, Siri was chosen to the All-State team in 1994 and 1995. In 1994, the team won the state championship and Siri was chosen MVP. She graduated at the end of her junior year to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In June 2009, Siri was inducted into the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame.

A three-year starter on the UNC soccer team, Siri played on teams that won four ACC Championships and back-to-back NCAA Championships in 1996 and 1997. In the 1997 championship, played in Greensboro, she was named Defensive MVP. During her career at UNC, Siri allowed an average of 0.27 goals per game, ranking second-best in school history. As a sophomore, she earned a 120-minute shutout of Notre Dame in the NCAA National Championship match.

Siri was a member of the US Women’s national Under-16 team in 1994 and played on the under-20 national teams that competed in the Nordic Cup in Sweden in 1996 and in Denmark in 1997, helping the 1997 team to win the championship. She missed out on a spot on the 1998 Nordic Cup team due to injury but then returned in 1999 as a member of the national Under-21 team that won the prestigious Nordic Cup championship.

In the 2000 Olympics, she led the National Team to the Olympic Silver Medal. That was a record-breaking year for Siri. She started 28 games for the national team, the most ever for a U.S. goalkeeper in a calendar year. She set a new record for shutouts in a year, with 15, and was named the best goalkeeper at the 2000 CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup. She had a key save late in the 2000 Olympic Semifinal Game against Brazil that preserved the win and propelled the team to the Olympic Silver Medal. She started each game of the 2000 Olympics and is the second most capped goalkeeper in U.S. Women’s National Team history.

After graduating from UNC, Siri started her professional career with a one-year stay with the Raleigh Wings in 1999. Then, when the WUSA was launched in 2001, she joined the Washington Freedom, leading the team to the Founders Cup playoffs in 2002 and 2003 and to the Founders Cup championship in 2003.

Siri led the WUSA in saves in 2003 and earned a place on the league’s All-Star team. After her selection, Assistant Coach Dave Vanole said about Siri that she “proved last year that she is one of the elite goalkeepers in the world. Her quickness and foot skills will allow us to play the kind of defense many teams can only dream of.” In 2009, she and fellow team member Mia Hamm were selected as the first-ever inductees to the Washington Freedom’s Hall of Freedom.

When her days as a player ended, Siri turned to coaching, first for three years as an assistant coach for the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and, beginning in August 2008, as an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University. In her second and third seasons with UNC-G, the team advanced to the NCAA Tournament and in the last season advanced to the second round. In moving to VCU, Siri rejoined former Tar Heel and national teammate Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, VCU co-head coach.

Legendary UNC coach Anson Dorrance says about Siri that “whenever anyone talks about the beginning of elite player development for girls in North Carolina it is going to begin with her. She forged her reputation in the youth ranks in Greensboro, cemented it in spectacular fashion at UNC and then surpassed that when she ascended to start for the US Olympic Team in the Australia Olympics. Her legacy is what every youth player should aspire to in the state of North Carolina. She has shown everyone the way.”