Taylor Marie Lytle (born March 31, 1989) 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 last played 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

Utah Royals FC Utah Royals FC was 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 in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) from 2018 ...

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

Lytle was raised in

Las Cruces, New Mexico Las Cruces (; "the crosses") is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the seat of Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 census the population was 111,385. Las Cruces is the largest city in both Doña Ana County and southern New ...

, where she attended

Las Cruces High School Las Cruces High School is a public high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. LCHS opened in 1954 and is the oldest public high school in Las Cruces. As of the 2016–17 school year, it serves 1,661 students from grades 9–12. It is a p ...

. She helped lead the Las Cruces squad to state championship titles in 2003 and 2005 and was named first team All-District and All-State all four years. In 2005, she was named New Mexico State Player and Gatorade Player of the Year as well as NSCAA High School All-American. In 2007, she was named as one of the nation's Top 125 Freshman for the year's recruiting class by Soccer Buzz. She ended her high school career with 78 goals and 81 assists. Lytle played for Rio Vista FC 89, who were State Champions in 2005 and was a member of the New Mexico State Olympic Development Program (ODP) team. She also participated in multiple U-14 and U-15 national camps.

Club

Texas Tech University

Lytle attended

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

majoring in animal science. She played from 2008 to 2011 for the

Texas Tech Red Raiders The Texas Tech Red Raiders and Lady Raiders are the athletic teams that represent Texas Tech University, located in Lubbock, Texas. The women's basketball team uses the name Lady Raiders, while the school's other women's teams use the "Red Raide ...

and was named to the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

first team in 2009 and all-second team in 2008 and 2011. During her career she scored 14 goals and 27 assists, the latter a school record. She was team captain in her Junior and Senior seasons.

Sky Blue FC

In 2013, she signed as a discovery player with

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

in the

. Often coming off the bench, Lytle appeared in 21 of Sky Blue's 22 regular season games and scored four goals. On May 16, 2013, Lytle scored her first goal in her Sky Blue FC and National Women's Soccer League career. This goal was scored in the 80th minute of the match, and proved to be the game winner of Sky Blue's 1–0 defeat of then first place team

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 ...

. Lytle was a substitute in Sky Blue's semi-final loss to the

Western New York Flash The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in Elma, New York that competed in the United Women's Soccer league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the USL W-League in 2010, Women's Profess ...

on August 24, 2013. In 2014, Lytle played in 7 games, starting in 5, for Sky Blue before suffering a season-ending tibia fracture and lateral meniscus tear on 11 May. Lytle returned to Sky Blue in 2015 and appeared in 15 games. She appeared in 18 games in 2016 and a career high 21 games in 2017.

Utah Royals, 2018–2020

On December 29, 2017, Sky Blue traded Lytle and teammate

Kelley O'Hara Kelley Maureen O'Hara (born August 4, 1988) is an American soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, and Olympic gold medalist. She currently plays as a defender for the Gotham FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and ...

. Lytle appeared in 10 games for the Royals in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, she was tied for the team lead with 2 assists. Lytle returned to Utah for the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

season. She suffered a serious foot injury prior to their first match of the season and was placed on the season ending injury list (SEI) and she would miss the entire 2019 season.

International career

Lytle was a member of the U.S. women's national under-23 team in 2012. She came off the bench in each of the three matches of the Under-23 Four Nations Tournament in

La Manga Club La Manga Club is a sports and leisure resort located in the south-eastern region of Spain, Murcia, south of La Manga, and bordered by the Mar Menor and Calblanque Regional Park. The resort complex opened in 1972 and covers an area of 1,400 a ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and scored one goal.

References

External links

Taylor Lytle
profile at

Texas Tech player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lytle, Taylor 1989 births Living people American women's soccer players National Women's Soccer League players Pali Blues players NJ/NY Gotham FC players Soccer players from New Mexico Sportspeople from Las Cruces, New Mexico Texas Tech Red Raiders women's soccer players Utah Royals FC players Women's association football midfielders