From Last Off Bench to U.S. National Team, Anna Brandt Had to Earn Everything

A younger Anna Brandt could simply never believe any of this is happening.

In 2015, when USA Lacrosse broke ground on the office complex and field for the national governing body’s new headquarters in Sparks, Md., Brandt was enamored by the idea of getting to watch the U.S. Women’s National Team play in her backyard.

Brandt, who grew up in nearby White Hall, often drove past the facility while it was being built and later played games there with her Hereford High School team. But never in her wildest dreams did Brandt think she’d find a home for herself on William G. Tierney Field.

Brandt, 23, lives so much in the moment and has so much mental clarity that it’s sometimes difficult for her to grasp the rising star she’s become. At Penn, where she was the 2025 IWLCA Midfielder of the Year, she still checked each game to see if her name was in the starting lineup. And now she pinches herself when throwing passes to the likes of Sam Apuzzo and Charlotte North as a member of the U.S. Women’s National Team.

“I still get chills when I walk in this building and see the U.S. emblems and everything,” Brandt said. “It feels like such a dream.”

The irony of those chills is that Brandt frequents USA Lacrosse HQ most mornings, usually around 8 a.m., when she’s down in the basement working out with MedStar Director of Sports Performance Alex Milton. Then she’s out on the field, alone, going through a gauntlet of shooting and running drills.

Being a midfielder, Brandt understands the importance of fitness. Anyone who sees her can understand how much she values it. Her veins pop all the way down her biceps as she describes her personal motivations some 15 minutes after the conclusion of another rigorous session on a warm day at the end of May — roughly two months away from competing in Tokyo in the World Lacrosse Women’s Championship.

“There’s just so much more on the line. It’s so much bigger than myself,” Brandt said. “That makes it easier to push myself and demand more from myself.”

Brandt purposefully tries to put herself in uncomfortable situations. She believes it’s the only way to grow.

“The moment we really hinder ourselves as people and athletes is when we think we are the best and there’s nowhere else up to go,” she said. “I hate the feeling of untapped potential. I never want to say, ‘What if?’”

Brandt earned every bit of her newfound fame. In high school, she was the “last kid off the bench” for her M&D Black 2020 club team that went 123-2-3 in its time together because it was littered with Division I talent. The only reason she ended up at Penn, where she set career records in goals (206) and draw controls (214), was because she told Army she didn’t eat gluten.

One year before she planned to head to West Point, a place whose tenets of leadership and selfless service attracted her, Brandt was told that her medical papers didn’t go through. She was just trying to be honest about her dietary choices, yet it unexpectedly came back to quash her dreams.

West Point was the only Division I school that recruited her.

“I heard a lot of rumors about what happened at Army. It’s crazy what people can come up with,” she said. “I just don’t eat gluten. It’s a preference thing. I even submitted bloodwork and doctor’s notes, but they wouldn’t budge.”

Brandt blasted emails to any Division I coach who would listen. She even offered to be a walk-on. All she wanted was to be part of a team.

In what became a serendipitous moment, Penn head coach Karin Brower reached out. They clicked immediately. Brower, a Penn Athletics Wharton Leadership Academy Senior Fellow, jived with how much Brandt valued the traits required to be a leader. Brandt was just appreciative of somebody giving her a shot. It was a perfect match.

But because of how it all transpired, Brandt couldn’t enroll right away. She effectively took a gap year as a part-time student at the Community College of Baltimore County for two semesters. To maintain NCAA eligibility, Brandt took just three classes per semester before heading to Penn in the fall of 2021.

“We just hit it off on that call,” Brower said. “She’s just that kid who has that gratefulness that is so rare. There’s no agenda. She felt indebted to the opportunity to work her butt off and be the best that she could be.”

Brandt started all 73 games of her Penn career. Her points total rose each year, and she led Penn to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2024 and 2025.

Even as she found success, however, she still questioned herself. It was not necessarily a lack of self-esteem — probably more of a lack of self-awareness.

Brandt and Brower intimately recalled the same story. Leading into a game against Yale, Brandt rolled her ankle and was unsure about whether she could play. The training staff cleared her, leaving no questions about her status. Still, Brandt was on the fence.

Brower had to open Brandt’s eyes to just how good she was. She needed a confidence boost.

“Anna, you could be the Midfielder of the Year,” she said.

Brant didn’t believe her. Then it happened in 2025.

“There are not a lot of kids like her,” Brower said.

Perhaps this perpetual disbelief in all the good things happening in her life have shaped her outlook on playing for the national team. Like many college graduates, Brandt entered the workforce. She got a job at a corporate law firm in Washington, D.C., doing structured transactional work. Basically, she was doing the bare minimum as a paralegal.

There was nothing wrong with the gig. Brandt wants to go to law school someday, and this was a logical first step. But suddenly, she resigned.

Lacrosse is the most important thing in Brandt’s life. At least it is right now. While that window is open, and while she’s at her peak physical fitness level, living in two worlds that were fighting for her precious hours just wasn’t a possibility.

“I couldn’t balance it,” Brandt said. “I was struggling with the idea that I’ve been gifted such a special opportunity to represent my country at a time when women’s lacrosse is speeding up and about to explode, and I’m working a 9-5 — and it was more like a 9-8.  I felt like it was a disservice to myself, my teammates and coaches and anyone who’s put me in this position. I felt called to go completely all in. You can’t go half in, half out if you’re representing your country.”

Brandt, who also plays professionally for the California Palms of the Women’s Lacrosse League, found the conversation with her boss empowering. There was no ill will on either side, just a mutual understanding of Brandt’s present-day priorities.

It’d be accurate to call the decision “selfish.” Not in a negative way, of course. After all, Brandt felt liberated putting her dreams before her career.

Brandt, though, doesn’t see it as a self-righteous decision. Sports have taught her to be uncomfortable. To roll with the punches. To embrace being the least experienced or least talented person in the room and on the field.

It’s partially what makes her a perfect fit on a national team that’ll play with an edge and inspire generations of women’s lacrosse players to come. In a championship that will be played during the 100th year of women’s lacrosse in the United States, Brandt has the future in mind. Not hers. Theirs.

“The girls seeing us in those USA uniforms deserve to see our very best,” she said. “A 9-5 will always be there, but this opportunity won’t. I need to give absolutely everything I have to it.”