I think that Deidre is one of the finest athletes playing girls soccer in our state.
A note on something in general regarding defenders. I've been fortunate enough to see perhaps the best defender in the last 10 years play a lot (Blakely Mattern.) I've also seen some other wonderful defenders play -- from Kimmy Gillespie back when she played club/high school to Alix Zongrone today (in my opinion the best overall defender in the state. (Note: I think that Wando has the best overall defense in our state.)
The major difference that I see between the best defenders in the upstate of South Carolina versus most defenders in the state is training. There are fundamentals to the way that you play defense that I just don't see a lot of kids showing. You can be a great athlete -- but if you're not trained on defensive fundamentals -- you're not going to achieve what you want. And beyond defensive fundamentals, the best defenders in the state have the ability not only to defend but to alter the nature of the attack in a coherent, planned fashion (i.e., have some degree of field vision and an ability to pass to a teammate at a fast pace.)
