Elyse Morgan Bennett (born December 27, 1999) is an American 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 ...

player who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

and

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for the San Diego Wave in 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).

Youth career

Born in

Lake Forest, Illinois Lake Forest is a city located in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 19,367. The city is along the shore of Lake Michigan, and is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area and the North Shore. Lake Forest ...

, Bennett was raised in the

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The county seat of Brown County, it is at the head of Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It is above sea lev ...

area and played several youth sports through middle school before taking up soccer in high school. She played one season for

De Pere High School De Pere High School (DPHS) is a public high school located in De Pere, Wisconsin. Founded in 1870, it serves students in grades 9 through 12. It is the only high school in the Unified School District of De Pere. History Until 1870, schooling f ...

De Pere, Wisconsin De Pere ( ) is a city located in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 25,410 according to the 2020 Census. De Pere is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area. History At the arrival of the first European, Je ...

before joining the FC Wisconsin Eclipse youth program, where she became a top scorer in the Elite Clubs National League for the 2015–16 season. Bennett suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

injury during her senior year of high school.

College career

Bennett graduated from high school early and enrolled in

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

as an early recruit to its women's soccer team. After playing as a substitute and starter in her freshman season, Bennett became a regular starter at forward in her sophomore season before suffering a second ACL injury. She returned to start 23 of 24 matches in her junior year, 12 matches in the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

-shortened 2020–21 spring season, and 21 matches in her fifth year in 2021. Her fifth season featured career highs in goals (10), points (24), shots (93), shots on goal (37), and minutes played (1,557), and she was named to the All-Pac-12 first team and United Soccer Coaches All-American second team. Bennett was also the second Washington State player to play in more than 90 career matches, finishing with a second-most tally of 93 appearances.

Club career

The

Kansas City Current Kansas City Current is an American professional women's soccer team based in Kansas City, Kansas. It began play as an expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2021. History Establishment Kansas City last had an NWS ...

selected Bennett with the club's first pick, the seventh overall pick of the

2022 NWSL Draft The 2022 NWSL Draft was the 10th annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on December 18, 2021, and hosted remotely by CBS Sports. Format * All 12 teams of the National ...

. During the

2022 NWSL Challenge Cup The 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup was a league cup competition that took place during the 2022 National Women's Soccer League season. It was the third iteration of the NWSL Challenge Cup tournament. Format The 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup was a multi-sta ...

, Bennett recorded four assists in her first six professional matches, including a two-assist match against the

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

that earned her an

NWSL Player of the Week The National Women's Soccer League Player of the Week is a weekly soccer award given to individual players in the National Women's Soccer League. The honor is awarded to the player deemed to have put in the best performances over the past week b ...

award. On January 11, 2023,

OL Reign OL Reign is an American professional Women's association football, women's soccer team based in Seattle, Washington. Founded by Bill and Teresa Predmore in 2012 as Seattle Reign FC, it was one of eight inaugural members of the National Women's S ...

traded $150,000 in allocation money to the

for Bennett. OL Reign subsequently extended Bennett's contract on June 2, 2023 through the 2024 season, with an additional year option for the 2025 season. On December 15, 2023, the

Utah Royals Utah Royals FC is an American women's professional soccer club based in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, Utah. Established on November 16, 2017, as an expansion club, the Royals played its first stint in the National Women's Soccer League ( ...

selected Bennett with their first pick (second overall) in the 2024 NWSL Expansion Draft. Two days later, Utah traded Bennett to the San Diego Wave for $40,000 in allocation money.

Personal life

Bennett is the daughter of

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

coach and former player

Edgar Bennett Edgar Bennett III (born February 15, 1969) is an American football coach and former running back who is the wide receivers coach for the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). Bennett played college football at Florida State ...

. She has one older brother, Edgar IV. Bennett credited advice from her father, who recovered from ACL injuries during his professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

career, with aiding her recovery from her own.

References

External links

*
Elyse Bennett
at

Elyse Bennett
at

Washington State Cougars profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Elyse 1999 births Living people African-American soccer players American women's soccer players National Women's Soccer League players Washington State Cougars women's soccer players North Carolina Courage draft picks Sportspeople from Lake County, Illinois Soccer players from Illinois Women's association football forwards Women's association football midfielders Kansas City Current players Soccer players from Wisconsin Kansas City Current draft picks OL Reign players