Connecticut College Athletic Hall of Fame
Astrid Kempainen ‘15 proved to be one of the best leaders in Connecticut College women’s soccer history.
Kempainen led the Camels to a 16-3-1 record in 2014, a season highlighted by the first-ever NESCAC team championship in school history. After dispatching Williams College in the conference title game, Conn College went on to claim its first NCAA postseason win since 1998 with a 3-1 victory over Swarthmore College in the opening round of the NCAA Championship.
Just the second player in program history to earn NESCAC Player of the Year honors (2014), Kempainen closed out her senior year as a NSCAA First Team All-American and D3soccer.com First Team All-American. The two-time team captain and 2015 Anita L. DeFrantz award winner finished her collegiate career with 13 career assists, good enough for ninth place all-time in the program record book.
A three-time NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team honoree, Kempainen was a member of the student-athlete advisory council for four years, a Special Olympics volunteer, an organic chemistry tutor, and a member of the paramedic internship program.
Kempainen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biology in 2015, and later earned her medical doctorate from the Tufts University School of Medicine in 2021. She then finished her Family Medicine residency at the University of Vermont Medical Center in 2024 and is now a practicing primary care physician in Waterbury, Vermont. She continues to play soccer during the summers in a women’s league.
