Lauren Holiday

Lauren Cheney Holiday (born Lauren Nicole Cheney; September 30, 1987) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder and forward for the United States women's national soccer team from 2007 to 2015.

She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup champion.

Holiday played professionally for FC Kansas City in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Boston Breakers in the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS).

She played collegiate soccer for the UCLA Bruins.

She attended Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis where she was named the school's most valuable offensive player in 2004–05.

In 2004, she was named Metro Player of the Year by the Indianapolis Star.

In 2006, she was named Parade All-American and was Gatorade Player of the Year in addition to receiving numerous regional awards including first-team All-Conference, All-County and All-State, and Indianapolis Star Super Team Player of the Year.

She earned Indiana All-State selection honors each year of her high school career and was named NSCAA All-American three times.

Holiday finished her high school career having scored 118 goals and served 67 assists.

She graduated mid-year in 2006 to train full-time with the United States U-20 women's national soccer team for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

In the fall of 2006, Holiday enrolled at UCLA, where she was named a first-team All-American and NSCAA Freshman of the Year.

She led the Pac-10 Conference with 19 goals, which also set a new UCLA freshman record with a goals-per-game percentage of .95.

In 2007, she was named U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year.

As a sophomore in 2007, she was the runner-up for the women's Hermann Trophy and the Pac-10 Player of the Year.

She led the conference again in goals scored with 23 and broke the UCLA single-season school records for points (57) and goals (23).

Holiday became the first player in UCLA history to earn NSCAA/adidas First-Team All-America honors all four years of her career.

At UCLA, she set new school records for points (173) and game-winning goals (28); and tied the career school record in goals with 71.

She had 31 career assists, second place in the record book.

During her four years, the Bruins played in consecutive NCAA College Cups.

Holiday won gold with the national team at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 2012 London Summer Olympics, and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada.

During the summer of 2009, Holiday joined Southern California team Pali Blues, in the W-League.

Throughout the entire regular season, the Blues did not lose a match and finished first in the Western Conference with a 9–0–3 record.

After defeating the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues 4–0 in the championship semi-final in which Holiday scored a goal in the 65th minute, the Pali Blues clinched the championship title in a 2–1 defeat of the Washington Freedom Reserves on August 7, 2009.

On January 15, 2010, Holiday was selected by the Boston Breakers as the second overall pick in the WPS Draft.

She played in 23 games for Boston during the 2010 season, starting in 21 matches and scoring five goals with two assists.

After Boston finished in second place during the regular season with a, the team advanced to the playoffs.

Holiday scored the team's lone goal in the 2–1 playoff loss against the Philadelphia Independence.

Holiday was named as a starter in the 2010 WPS All-Star Game and scored in the 79th minute.

She played for the team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup where the U.S. were the runners-up and Holiday was named to the tournament's All-Star team.

During the 2011 WPS season, Holiday made ten appearances for the club.

After returning to Boston following the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, Holiday's brace during the team's final regular season match helped the Breakers clinch the last remaining spot in the playoffs.

She was subsequently named WPS Player of the Week for week 18 of the season.

The Breakers finished the regular season in fourth place with a The team was defeated 3–1 by magicJack during the playoff semifinal.

In 2013, Holiday was one of three national team players along with Becky Sauerbrunn and Nicole Barnhart to be allocated to FC Kansas City for the inaugural season of the National Women's Soccer League as part of the NWSL Player Allocation.

In June 2013, she was named NWSL Player of the Month after scoring six times in five games and becoming the league's leading scorer with eight goals.

FC Kansas City finished second during the regular season with an 11–6–5 record.

She earned U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year honors in 2014.

She was the first player in NWSL history to have her jersey retired after retiring from the league.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana to Rita and George Cheney, Holiday began playing soccer as a youth after watching her brother play the sport.

She played on boys' teams until age 12.