Kates is the second-highest-ranked defender in the Rankings and climbed all the way up to fifth place overall. She leads the backline for Albion Hurricanes FC G10 in the ECNL League and Friendswood at the high school level. Kates had an incredible rise in the last few months, having made it to the USYNT and establishing herself among the best center backs in the country. She’s really tough in duels, playing hard and making quick actions to dispossess opponents. Despite not being very tall, Kates is very strong in the air and has a great presence in both penalty boxes, doing a good job of delivering defensive clearances and scoring off headers in set pieces. She has quality on the ball, too, and is very accurate with her long passes and with her service in set pieces.

Kates initiated Albion’s comeback with two early goals in the second half, in plays in which she demonstrated great positioning in the attacking penalty box and impressive awareness to send the ball into the right spots with headers. The center back was also very good in her primary responsibilities, leading her team’s defensive system from the center of their back three. Kates stood out with her positioning, being the first to get to long passes almost every time, and also did well when she had to move from her spot to cover teammates on the sides. The center back played good passes out of the back and was very precise with long free kicks, getting the ball into dangerous spots in the penalty box.