Allison Jane Falk (born March 31, 1987) is a former

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender. She previously played for the

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Blue Star, LLC and AEG, a subsidia ...

and

Philadelphia Independence The Philadelphia Independence was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania. The team joined Women's Professional Soccer as an expansion team in 2010 and played its home games at West ...

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

(WPS). She was a WPS All-Star in 2010.

Early life

Born in the Seattle suburb of

Renton, Washington Renton is a city in King County, Washington, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 2020 census, the ...

, to Brad and Jenise Falk, Allison was raised in

Danville, California The Town of Danville is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California. It is one of the incorporated municipalities in California that use "town" in their names instead of "city". The population was 43,582 at the 2020 census ...

, and attended

San Ramon Valley High School San Ramon Valley High School is a four-year public high school located in the East Bay neighborhood of Danville, California, United States. It is a part of the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. It is a National Blue Ribbon school from th ...

, where she captained the squad to back-to-back league championships in 2003 and 2004 as well as the North Coast Section (NCS) finals in 2004. A four-year letter winner in soccer, Falk was named the NSCAA/adidas All-American Team and California High School Sports North Coast Section (NCS) Player of the Year in 2004. She was also a four-time East Bay Athletic League First Team selection. Falk played club for the Pleasanton Rage.

Stanford Cardinal

Falk attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she played for the

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

from 2005 to 2008. In 2005, Falk was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman team. During her sophomore season, she led the team to 15 shutouts, a 0.55 goals against average (GAA) and was named to the All-Pac-10 Second Team. As a junior, she earned All-Pac 10 Honorable Mention after leading a defense that had the nation's third best regular-season GAA. During her senior year, she helped Stanford post a .317 GAA and earned All-Pac 10 Second Team honors. The Cardinal finished second to UCLA in the conference with a 22-2-1 record and their made their first Women's College Cup appearance since 1993.

Playing career

Los Angeles Sol

Falk was selected tenth during the

2009 WPS Draft The 2009 WPS Draft took place on January 16, 2009. It was the first draft held by Women's Professional Soccer to assign the WPS rights of college players to the American-based teams, though other players not previously assigned could be drafted as ...

by the

for the inaugural season of the

(WPS). She is best known for scoring the first goal in the history of the league on an assist from

Aya Miyama is a Japanese former footballer who played for the Japan national team starting in 2003, and from 2012 to 2016 served as captain of the team. She appeared in four World Cups between 2003 and 2015, including the team that won the 2011 World C ...

in the seventh minute of the league's first game against the

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

Philadelphia Independence

Falk was traded to the

for the

2010 WPS season The 2010 Women's Professional Soccer season was the second season for the WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. Regular season champion FC Gold Pride won the WPS Championship on September 26 with a 4-0 victor ...

. She scored the team's inaugural goal during the 55th minute of the team's second game on an assist from teammate,

Lori Lindsey Lori Ann Lindsey (born March 19, 1980) is a retired American soccer midfielder who last played for Canberra United in the Australian W-League and was also a member of the United States women's national soccer team player pool. She played one ...

. During her second season in the WPS, she was selected as a WPS All-Star and was a finalist for Defender of the Year.

References

External links

Philadelphia player profile

* American women's soccer players Los Angeles Sol players Philadelphia Independence players Stanford Cardinal women's soccer players Sportspeople from Renton, Washington 1987 births Living people Women's Professional Soccer players People from Danville, California Women's association football defenders California Storm players Women's Premier Soccer League players 21st-century American women {{US-women-footy-bio-stub