Olivia Marie Athens (born August 1, 1998) 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

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

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 ...

of 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).

Early life

Born in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Stanford is ...

and raised in nearby Atherton, Athens attended Sacred Heart Prep where she played soccer for two seasons. During her time with the varsity team, she scored 33 goals and provided 30 assists. She earned first-team all-league honors the first year and was named the league's Forward of the Year the second. She played club soccer for PSV Union FC 98G and won the 2014 Surf Cup.

College career

UCLA Bruins, 2017–2021

Athens attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

where she played for the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). ...

from 2017–21. During her freshman season in 2017, Athens was a started in 12 of the 23 games she played, including six 2017 NCAA College Cup games. Her first goal was a game-winner against Princeton in the NCAA College Cup quarterfinals. She was named to Top Drawer Soccer's Team of the Week in late November. The Bruins advanced to the final of the College Cup where they were defeated 3–2 by the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

. During the 2018 season, Athens ranked third on the Bruins in scoring with four goals, including two game-winners and 16 points. Her eight assists ranked second on the team. She was a starting midfielder in 20 starts of the 22 games she played, including all four 2018 NCAA College Cup games where the team advanced to the quarterfinals and were defeated in a penalty kick shootout by the

North Carolina Tar Heels The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the ''Tar Heel ...

. Athens earned honorable mention Pac-12 All-Academic honors. In 2019, Athens's season was cut short by a fractured leg injury. Returning in 2020, Athens was a starting midfield in 16 of the 17 games she played, scored four goals and provided eight assists for a total of 16 points. She was named Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week and earned CoSIDA Academic All-District first-team honors. In her final season with the Bruins, Athens was a starter in all 19 games she played. Her four goals and ten points ranked third on the team. Both of the assists she provided were on game-winning goals. Athens finished her collegiate career with 12 goals and 15 assists in the 85 games she played.

Club career

OL Reign, 2022–

signed Athens in January 2022 ahead of the 2022 season. She made her professional debut for the club in a match against

Angel City FC Angel City Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League expansion team that began play in 2022. The team is based in Los Angeles, California, and was announced on July 21, 2020. The team has many high-profile owners, including Becky G, Natal ...

on March 26, 2022. On July 10, 2022, she scored her first professional goal against

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 ...

in her first professional start. Athens finished her rookie season with eight appearances and one goal. The Reign finished in first place and won the

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 ...

and advanced to the

NWSL Playoffs The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games cann ...

Honors

; with OL Reign *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

The Women's Cup The Women's Cup is an annual club women's soccer invitational tournament hosted by Racing Louisville FC in the United States. History Launched by OnSide Entertainment, FXE Futbol, and Agrinzonis Management Group in 2021, it currently features si ...

References

External links

*
UCLA profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Athens, Olivia UCLA Bruins women's soccer players OL Reign players Living people American women's soccer players People from Atherton, California Sportspeople from San Mateo County, California Women's association football midfielders 1998 births National Women's Soccer League players Soccer players from California