PND’s LaFollette wins 2026 Clutch Sports Media Girls Soccer Player of the Year

Ava LaFollette is the latest in a long line of stars to come out of Peoria Notre Dame’s garden of soccer talent.

The Irish forward is one of Central Illinois’ all-time leading scorers, a key factor in PND’s extended success and Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Girls Soccer Player of the Year. 

LaFollette led the Irish to a season of 23 wins, two draws and one loss while scoring 57 goals to go with seven assists. Her senior year marked her second straight campaign with 57 goals, which is tied for the 16th-most goals in a season in IHSA girls soccer history.

LaFollette, who played at Metamora in her freshman year before transferring to PND, finished her prep career with 166 goals, which is the 10th-most in IHSA history. She helped the Irish reel off three straight seasons of 23 wins or more and go a combined 74-5-4 with three Big 12 Conference championships and two state trophies. 

The skilled PND attacker earned Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association All-State honors for the second straight year after earning All-Sectional honors in both her freshmen and sophomore campaigns. LaFollette also earned All-Midwest Region and unanimous first team all-Big 12 honors this past season and managed to still be effective despite drawing two to three defenders on her in most games. 

LaFollette was a first team selection on Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Girls Soccer All-Area Teams. 

Hear more about LaFollette’s season and his career in our interview with her below. Some answers have been minimally edited for clarity.

What have you been able to reflect and look back on since the season has ended? 

“I mean, it definitely sucks that our season ended so early but this year, we did move up into 3A and we did play really good teams [and] end off with a really good season,” LaFollette said. “Even though we lost so early, I’m just proud of our team and how far we made it, especially with how many seniors we had last year. We just did really good and I'm so proud of us.”

What inspired your love for soccer?

“I started playing soccer when I was seven,” LaFallotte said. “My dad, he actually put me in soccer and in my first game actually, I went out on the field, and I started crying. I didn't want to be out there but that didn't stop my parents. They put me in the park district [soccer] and then I kept playing, and I finally just got into the groove of soccer. I've always been a forward, I've been a forward my whole life so I've always just been scoring goals. Even when I was younger, my dad would always take me to the field just practice shooting both with my right and left foot, so that's why I score a lot of goals with my left foot, even though I am right-footed.

What’s a game from your career that you remember the most?

“Honestly, it's all the Morton games we've ever played,” LaFollette said. “Probably our sectional finals game against Morton [in 2025]. It was just such an intense game and when we play Morton, we always have a big rivalry and we just go back and forth the entire game. The fans and everyone was screaming. I scored in all three games and when you score, it's just so great because you're just like, ‘Finally we have a lead’, and you scream and celebrate with your teammates. You can just hear everyone else screaming in the stands and it was great.”

What’s a motto or mindset you take when you’re competing?

“When we're practicing and stuff, we just always just want to give it our all,” LaFollette said. “Just go compete the entire 80 minutes is what we always say before games too because anything could happen in a game, and we just want to go out there and leave it all out there so we have no regrets at the season. We know we got cut off shortly this year, we always just said ‘Just go give it your all’ and our coach said all of us gave it our all and he was so proud of us. Even though we did lose, that's all that mattered is that we just completed the entire 80 minutes.”

Aside from winning, what was your favorite memory of the season? 

“I probably like when all of us go up to TBK [Sports Complex],” LaFollette said. “The bus rides just going up to TBK and coming home, we all just sing on the bus and we also have a good time. Even though at TBK we tied one of our games, we still just had a really fun time. In the hotel, we all just sit there and we'll play little games and we all had matching pajamas.”

What are your future plans or aspirations?

“I was definitely debating on playing soccer in college…obviously it’s so late now but I still have a couple colleges I'm talking to right now,” LaFollette said. “I'm still just talking to colleges and after I come home from vacation, I'll figure it out. I think I want to be a dentist so I’ll probably major in something like that.”