Have You Seen This? Utah teen earns MVP honors at $1 million soccer tournament

CRUISIN' IN CARY — Bella Devey may have had the best summer vacation before she heads to college at North Carolina.

First, the recent Lone Peak graduate spent the past week playing with former U.S. stars like Carli Lloyd, Ali Krieger, Jill Loyden and Salt Lake City-born former Utah Royals draft pick Alexandra Kimball.

Then, Devey and her U.S. teammates — which include a handful of future UNC teammates — won the The Soccer Tournament, a seven-a-side, winner-take-all competition featuring a $1 million grand prize to the winning team at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina.

Devey, the 50-goal scorer with 36 assists in her four seasons who led Lone Peak to back-to-back 6A titles in 2023 and 2024 while juggling national team camps at the U17 and U19 levels, didn't just play, either.

The 2023 Gatorade Utah Player of the Year was named MVP and all-tournament Best Seven for the way she set up goals like this one in the final against Bumpy Pitch FC.

It's the second-straight women's title for US Women in the tournament founded by TBT Enterprises, the same group that created the popular $1 million winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament. The tournament originally began in 2022 with 32 men's teams, and expanded to an eight-team women's tournament in 2024.

This year, the number of women's teams doubled to 16, including an Austin Rise FC squad that featured Utah Valley standout Faith Webber.

The tournament also signed a media rights agreement with ESPN, which broadcast the majority of the fast-paced mini-soccer matches on ESPN+ with men's and women's finals Monday on ESPNU.

The most unique twist is that games didn't just end with a full-time whistle, or even penalty kicks. Instead — in a nod to its TBT counterpart — a target score is established by adding one goal to the leading team's score after full time. The first team to reach the target score wins, with players being taken off the field one at a time until they reach two-on-two soccer, if necessary.

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