Whitney Marie Church (born April 30, 1993) 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 played for the Washington Spirit 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 ...

Playing career

Penn State Nittany Lions, 2011–2014

Church attended

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

, where she played for the Nittany Lions from 2011 to 2014. She was named Big Ten Conference Defender of the Year in 2012 and 2014.

Washington Spirit, 2015–2018

In 2015, Church was selected by the Washington Spirit as the 30th overall pick in the

2015 NWSL College Draft The 2015 NWSL Draft, NWSL College Draft was the third annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible College soccer, college players. It was held on January 16, 2015 at the NSCAA Convention in Philadelphia, ...

. Church played in 16 games in the regular 2015 season, totaling 1364 minutes for the Spirit. In 2016, she played in 11 regular season games, 7 starts, plus all 120+ minutes of both post season matches. On October 28, 2016, the club announced that Church had re-signed for the 2017 NWSL season. In 2017, during her third season, Church appeared in 22 games, totaling 1,980 minutes of playing time. She was named the NWSL Player of the Week for Week 20 of the season. This selection was made after she scored the first goal of her NWSL career to rally her team to a 2–1 win over Sky Blue FC on the road. During the 2018 season, she appeared in 22-of-24 regular season games with 1,898 minutes of playing time. She finished second on the team with 103 defensive clears. On February 27, 2019, the Washington Spirit announced that the team had waived Church.

References

External links

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Washington Spirit player profile

Penn State player profile
1993 births Living people American women's soccer players National Women's Soccer League players Washington Spirit players Penn State Nittany Lions women's soccer players Soccer players from Virginia Women's association football defenders Washington Spirit draft picks Sportspeople from Fairfax, Virginia {{US-women-footy-bio-stub