2001: Thori Bryan was the only CyberRays player - and one of only four league-wide - to play every minute of every regular-season match, a total of 21 games and 1,890 minutes. By starting and playing every minute of both playoff games, she played 2,090 minutes, more than any WUSA player. Bryan established herself as the cornerstone of the CyberRays back line, usually playing right back but moving into a central defender role late in the season when D Dianne Alagich was lost to a knee injury.
Previous experience: Bryan earned 53 caps with the U.S. national team between 1993 and 1997, and she was on the team that placed third at the 1995 FIFA Women's World Championship in Sweden. She was the only American taken in the first round of the 2000 WUSA global draft. She was an alternate for the 1996 U.S. Olympic team that won the first gold medal in women's soccer. Recalled to the team in 2000 and earned 54th cap in the Australia Cup. Named to U.S. team that played a two-game tour against the Chinese national team earlier this year in China, earning her 55th and 56th caps. She was a high school soccer and track star, scoring 81 career goals at Joppatowne (Md.) High School. She won gold medals in the heptathlon in the 1991 and '92 national AAU Junior Olympics running for the Ed Waters Track Club in Baltimore.
College: As a defender at North Carolina State, she was twice nominated for the Missouri Athletic Club's College Player of the Year Award, losing out in 1994 to current CyberRays teammate Tisha Venturini. Known then as Thori Staples, she was a three-time all-American for the Wolfpack and the team's most valuable player.
Personal: Thori Yvette Staples. Born in Baltimore. Married Kip Bryan, a former N.C. State baseball player and owner of a commercial cleaning business, in 1998. Graduated from N.C. State in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management. Father Thurston is deceased; mother Sonda is a computer analyst.
2001 Regular Season Statistics
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