Carlin Xiaoying Hudson (born November 1, 1996) is an American former
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 is the director of strategy for the
National Women's Soccer League
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...
(NWSL).
Playing career
Yale Bulldogs
Hudson attended
Yale University, where, as a walk-on, she played for the
Yale Bulldogs from 2014 to 2018. In her freshman year, she was an honorable mention All-Ivy selection, and received the team's Captain Cup after starting 15 games. Hudson missed the following year due to a season-ending injury in the first game of the season, but would start every game in her junior and senior seasons, winning the team's Fritz Rodriguez Defensive Player of the Year Award each year. In her senior year, Hudson was a first-team All-Ivy selection, first-team All-New England selection, and academic All-Ivy selection. In total, she started 50 games, with 2 goals and 4 assists.
North Carolina Courage
Hudson was drafted 39th overall in the fourth round of the
2018 NWSL College Draft
The 2018 NWSL College Draft was the sixth annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on January 18, 2018 at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvani ...
by the
North Carolina Courage.
She was the first Yale player, and just the fourth Ivy to be selected in the NWSL College Draft, joining Princeton’s Jen Hoy (2013), Harvard’s Midge Purce (2017) and Princeton’s Tyler Lussi (2017).She was not signed to the active roster for the start of the 2018 season, and would not make any league appearances for the Courage.
In July 2018 she was named to the team's roster for the first-ever
Women's International Champions Cup Tournament.
Washington Spirit
Hudson joined the Washington Spirit in March 2019 as a non-roster invitee for their pre-season training camp.
In April, she was signed to their supplemental roster in advance of the 2019 NWSL season.
Hudson made her first professional appearance on May 11, 2019, as an 84th-minute substitute in Washington's 3–2 win over
Sky Blue FC.
Post-playing career
In 2022, she was hired as the NWSL's director of strategy, becoming the first ex-player to be hired by the league.
Personal life
She married Matthew Oplinger in October 2023.
References
External links
Washington Spirit player profile*
1996 births
Living people
Soccer players from Berkeley, California
American women's soccer players
Division 1 Féminine players
En Avant Guingamp (women) players
National Women's Soccer League players
North Carolina Courage draft picks
North Carolina Courage players
Washington Spirit players
Women's association football defenders
Yale Bulldogs women's soccer players
21st-century American sportswomen
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