Know Your Dash - Bianca Henninger

A native of California, Bianca Henninger went to Archbishop Mitty High School playing soccer for three of her four years of high school. She missed playing her junior year due to injury. Henninger played U-13 to U-18 for the De Anza Strykers, a four-time state cup finalist. She played U-11 through U-13 with the Central Valley Mercury.

An accounting major at Santa Clara University, Henninger played on the women's soccer team from 2008-2011. As a freshman Henninger played in seven matches for the Broncos, starting three games. As a sophomore in 2009, she started 17 of 19 matches and posted six shutouts. She had one assist on a long punt against San Jose State. Henninger suffered a concussion in the first West Coast Conference game of the year and ended up missing four conference games.

She earned her first career NCAA Tournament shutout in a 1-0 victory over Michigan State in the first round. During the second round of the NCAA tournament in a match against Oklahoma State, she saved two penalty kicks and scored one in a 6-5 shootout victory. Henninger was named to the NSCAA All-West Region Third Team and earned a spot on the WCC All-Academic Honorable Mention Team. Before the 2010 season kicked off she was on the M.A.C. Hermann Award Preseason Watch List. She started all 21 games she played in posting eight shuts outs and finishing the season 13-6-2.

She was the U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year and a NSCAA/Performance Subaru First-Team All-American and 2010 NSCAA/Performance Subaru All-West Region First Team. Also, named to TopDrawerSoccer.com's Team of the Season - Second Team and selected as a second-team MVP by Soccer America. Her senior year she played in 19 games starting in 18 of them. She was the Top Drawer Soccer player of the week after shut outs against Washington State and California. She was the 2011 WCC Goalkeeper of the Year, a 2011 Third-Team All-American and a 2011 All-WCC First-Team. Henninger was team captain for several years while playing for the Broncos.

She was a third round draft pick, 14th overall, in the 2012 WPS draft by the Philadelphia Independence. Once the WPS folded Henninger went to play for the New York Fury, a team competing in the WPSL Elite. In early February 2012 Henninger was drafted by F.C. Kansas City for the newly formed National Women's Soccer League. She appeared in just two games for the team before going on loan to Bayern Munich. Henninger was then traded to the Houston Dash for the first pick in the third round of the 2014 NWSL College Draft.

Henninger played in all 5 games for the Gold-Medal winning U.S. team in the 2010 CONCAAF U20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Guatemala, during which she surrendered just 2 goals in 5 games. She was also a member of the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup championship squad that was eliminated in the quarterfinals. She played in all four games, allowing only two goals and received the Adidas Golden Glove award for the competition.

Heninnger is a strong leader who is great at commanding her back line. She is extremely athletic with quick reflexes that help her defend goal. Expected to start out as a back up keeper for the Dash, Henninger is still young and her skills will only improve giving her the chance to become the Dash goal keeper of the future.