Kelli Hubly (born August 9, 1994) is an American professional
soccer player who plays as a
defender for
National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) club
Portland Thorns FC
The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...
. With the Thorns, Hubly won the 2017 NWSL Championship, the 2021 NWSL Shield, and other awards.
Early years
Hubly was born in
Elk Grove Village
Elk Grove Village is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 32,812. Located northwest of Chicago along the Golden Corridor, the Village of Elk Grove Village was incorpora ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
and attended
Elk Grove High School. Growing up she played for the club Sockers F.C. in Chicago, winning the 2010 and 2011 Illinois Cup Championships and the
U.S. Youth Soccer Regional Championship in 2011.
College
Hubly played at the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...
her first three years (2012-2014) of college, making the All-Freshman Team of the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...
(SEC) in 2012, winning the SEC's Freshman of the Week award on October 15, 2012, and making
Top Drawer Soccer's National Team of the Week on October 8, 2013.
In 2014 she helped the Wildcats advance to the SEC championship game.
In 2015 she transferred to
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Ca ...
, red-shirting that year due to NCAA transfer rules. She played the following year (2016), leading the
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...
in assists and assists per game, and graduated in 2017.
Club career
Hubly was eligible but not drafted in the
2017 NWSL College Draft. Hubly joined the Portland Thorns as a temporary national team replacement player in 2017.
Coming on for the last few minutes, Hubly made her first team debut on July 15, 2017, in a 1-0 win over the
North Carolina Courage
The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York ...
. That fall, she won the
2017 NWSL Championship with the Thorns. She earned her first professional start on March 24, 2018, against the Courage. After playing every minute of the first four games of the 2018 NWSL season due to an injury to usual starter
Emily Menges
Emily Townsend Menges (born July 28, 1992) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) for Portland Thorns FC, with whom she won the 2016 and 2021 NWSL Shield and also the 20 ...
, Hubly was signed by the Thorns on April 27, 2018, to a long-term contract.
Hubly was a key member and frequent starter for the Thorns teams that won the
2020 Fall Series (Community Shield),
2021 NWSL Challenge Cup
The 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup was a league cup tournament that took place during the 2021 National Women's Soccer League season. It began on April 9 and ended May 8, one week before the start of the regular season. It was the second iteration of t ...
,
2021 Women's International Champions Cup
The 2021 International Champions Cup Women's Tournament was a friendly tournament of women's association football matches. It was the third edition of the Women's International Champions Cup and took place in Portland, Oregon, United States, f ...
, and
2021 NWSL Shield.
In the
2022 NWSL Season
The 2022 National Women's Soccer League season was the tenth season of the National Women's Soccer League, the top division of women's soccer in the United States. Including the NWSL's two professional predecessors, Women's Professional Soccer ( ...
, Hubly played in every minute of every game for the Portland Thorns and was included in the 2022 NWSL Best XI Second Team.
International
Hubly was a member of the U.S. Women's National Team at the U-15, U-17, and U-18 levels.
Honors and awards
Portland Thorns FC
*
NWSL Champions:
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
,
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...
*
NWSL Shield
The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...
: 2021
*
NWSL Challenge Cup
The NWSL Challenge Cup, currently known as the UKG NWSL Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tournament organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-tier women's league in the United States soccer league system. T ...
:
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
*
NWSL Community Shield: 2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...
*
Women's International Champions Cup
The Women's International Champions Cup (WICC) is an annual club women's soccer invitational tournament in the United States. Launched by Relevent Sports Group in 2018, it features four American and European women's soccer teams competing for the ...
:
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...
Individual
*
NWSL Second XI:
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...
* Southeastern Conference All-Freshman Team: 2012
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubly, Kelli
1994 births
Living people
American women's soccer players
DePaul Blue Demons women's soccer players
Kentucky Wildcats women's soccer players
National Women's Soccer League players
People from Elk Grove Village, Illinois
Portland Thorns FC players
Soccer players from Cook County, Illinois
Soccer players from DuPage County, Illinois
Women's association football defenders