Hannah Blake arrived at the University of Michigan in 2019 as a FIFA World Cup veteran, Football Ferns international, and one of New Zealand's most decorated junior footballers. She left in 2022 with a degree from one of the world's top universities, completed six months ahead of schedule, and a professional career that has since taken her to Australia and England. This is what the college pathway looks like when every part of it is done properly.
There are athletes in this series who used the college pathway to develop into strong collegiate performers. There are others who used it to build academic records that opened professional doors beyond sport. Hannah Blake did both, simultaneously, at one of the most demanding academic and athletic institutions in the United States, while also representing New Zealand's senior national team during her college seasons.
The result is a career that, at 25, includes four goals in a single NCAA season, three goals in six appearances on her professional debut for Perth Glory, a contract with Adelaide United, a professional deal with Durham Women FC in England, and ongoing Football Ferns selection as recently as October 2025. The University of Michigan was not the beginning of that story, but it was the chapter that made everything after it possible.
Hannah was born in London and grew up in New Zealand, developing her football at Three Kings United in Auckland before attending Saint Kentigern College, where she became one of the most decorated junior footballers the country has produced.
The list of honours from her school years is striking in both its length and its breadth. She won the Auckland Young Sportswoman of the Year award in her senior year, was named Auckland Female Footballer of the Year twice, captained her school to two Auckland Premier School Championships, helped her team win the New Zealand Secondary Schools Premier Championship, won the Secondary Schools Premier Tournament Golden Boot as a freshman, and earned both the Greater Auckland Women's Premier Player of the Year and Auckland Women's Premier Young Player of the Year awards in her sophomore season.
She also competed in three FIFA Women's World Cups before stepping onto the Michigan campus. The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan came first. Then the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea. Then the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France, where she scored against the Netherlands in a goal that was nominated for Goal of the Tournament. In 2017, at 17 years old, she made her senior Football Ferns debut against Thailand.
That is the athlete who signed with Michigan in 2019. Not a promising young player looking for development, but a proven international competitor looking for an environment that would match her ambitions academically and take her game to the next level athletically.
Hannah narrowed her college choice to two schools: Michigan and the University of South Carolina. She and her father flew to the United States to visit both campuses before making the decision.
Michigan won, and her own explanation for why captures what the right fit actually feels like when you find it. "I struck gold with the Michigan team. I was a bit nervous they wouldn't get my New Zealand sense of humour but, luckily, Michigan was right up my alley. A lot of the girls were very similar to me and that allowed for a really great team culture. It has become a home away from home."
The academic side was equally deliberate. Michigan is ranked among the top 25 universities in the world, a Public Ivy with a selective acceptance rate of 26 percent. For Hannah, the academic environment was not an afterthought or a box to tick alongside the football. It was central to what she was looking for. She enrolled in Communication and Media, added a minor in Business Administration, and proceeded to finish her degree six months ahead of schedule while also competing in the Big Ten Conference and representing New Zealand's senior national team during the season.
Hannah's freshman season in 2019-20 established her immediately. She appeared in 20 matches, starting 19, logged 1,068 minutes, scored a game-winning goal against Florida Gulf Coast, and delivered 12 shots on target. The U-M Academic Achievement Award followed at the end of the year.
Her junior season in 2021 was her most productive on the pitch. Playing 21 matches and logging 823 minutes, she scored four goals across the season against Butler, Western Michigan, Rutgers and Purdue. She also missed portions of the season for New Zealand national team duty, a detail that tells its own story: she was good enough that her country needed her back, and Michigan had an environment that accommodated that commitment rather than resenting it.
Her senior season in 2022 brought more national team absences, eight starts and over 700 minutes across a shortened campaign. By the end of that year she had earned All-Big Ten honours for the third consecutive season, alongside the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar award, the CSC Academic All-District award, and her degree, completed ahead of schedule.
Hannah signed her first professional contract with Perth Glory in January 2023, shortly after finishing her collegiate career with the Wolverines. She made an immediate impact, scoring on debut against Western United and finishing with three goals in six appearances, a reflection of the level she developed through four years of Big Ten competition.
She then signed with Adelaide United for the 2023–24 A-League Women season before making the move to England in 2024 to join Durham Women FC in the FA Women’s Championship, where she has continued to develop and perform at the professional level.
On the international stage, Hannah has remained a regular selection for the Football Ferns. After being called into squads for matches against Mexico and the United States in late 2025, she was selected for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in the Solomon Islands in February 2026. During the campaign, she scored her first international goals with a hat-trick against the Solomon Islands, before also finding the net against Fiji during the semi-final and final series in New Zealand in April 2026.
Hannah now sits on 11 senior international caps and four goals for New Zealand, with her career continuing to trend strongly upward at both club and international level.
Hannah's story is the clearest illustration in this series of what the college pathway can do when every decision in it is made carefully and for the right reasons.
She chose Michigan not for its name alone but because the culture, the academic standard, and the competitive environment matched what she was actually looking for. She took the academic side as seriously as the athletic side, completing her degree early while managing national team call-ups during the season. She used the Big Ten as a development environment rather than a destination, emerging from it more complete as a footballer and as a person than when she arrived.
The result is a professional career in Australia and England, ongoing Football Ferns selection, and a degree from one of the world's top universities. Those outcomes did not happen despite the college pathway. They happened because of it, and because of the decisions made at every stage of it.
If you are a student-athlete or parent trying to understand the U.S. college pathway, start with a conversation. Platform Sports can help you understand your options, your timeline, and what the right fit could look like.
