Eddy, Hill Ready to Make an Impact for Angel City

During major tournaments like the World Cup, when NWSL players leave the league to compete for their national teams, clubs are allowed to sign additional players to fill out their rosters. With Julie Ertz and Alyssa Thompson already away at USWNT camp, Angel City has announced two of these national team replacement players (NTRPs), Elizabeth Eddy and Kelsey Hill. Per league rules, clubs can sign as many NTRPs as they have players away at the World Cup.

Eddy and Hill both got their first Angel City minutes on Wednesday night in the team’s Challenge Cup win against San Diego Wave FC.

Defender Kelsey Hill, an Elk Grove, CA native, is a 2023 graduate of Pepperdine University, where she majored in math. She played her freshman and sophomore seasons at Saint Mary’s College before transferring to Pepperdine, where she redshirted the 2019 season and played for three years, with one of those being the truncated 2020 season. In 2021, she was part of a back line that helped the team post 13 shutouts, one less than the school record, and recorded a conference-leading .58 goals against average.

Hill was able to play a fifth season in 2022 due to the extra year of eligibility granted athletes whose careers were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but that season was cut short early when she broke her hip while playing Cal on the road. She worked her way back to fitness over about two months and joined Angel City as a training player after going unselected in the 2023 NWSL Draft.

“Kelsey has just continued to grow on and off the field,” says Tweed. “She works hard every single day and she's really been a part of the team and part of the identity for six months now. She's been in every meeting. So for her to step into this position, it's not really a new role, and I think she’s going to make the transition really well.”

Hill has mostly played center back in recent years, which is where Tweed mainly sees her fitting in, but also has experience at outside back. “You're always looking at, one, where does a player fit for your team?” Tweed explains. “And two, where can they be the best version of themselves? I think center back is where I see her fitting, but if you’re versatile, more opportunity can arise. So there may be opportunities for her to play at outside back, but I think her priority or main position will be center back.”

For her own part, as a player, “I’m just gritty,” Hill says. “Kind of like my journey here. I know how to persevere and just keep going. I’ll make those last-ditch efforts [to stop an attack]. I just want to do my job to the best of my ability for as long as I'm in.”

She says the jump from college to the professional level has forced her to grow quickly. “The main thing at first was definitely speed of play,” she says. “Getting used to playing that fast and seeing your options—and not just that first option, but seeing the deeper passes. And then at outside back, approach speed. So when the center back releases you, you have to get out there and break down your feet and be ready to defend one-v-one.”

Hill also says she’s done a lot of work, including outside of training, on improving her left foot so she can be prepared to play anywhere along the back line. “I have a Pepperdine friend who’s a goalkeeper, so I’ll be like, ‘okay, this is what we need today.’ Either I'm shooting on her and doing the goalkeeper stuff or she's helping me out.”

Tweed praises Hill’s focus and determination, saying she has an excellent level of fitness and hasn’t missed even a recovery session. “She just wants to be a professional player,” Tweed says. “And the best thing is, she wants to be a professional player in this club and in her home state.”

Midfielder Elizabeth Eddy is a veteran who has been in the league since 2015. She spent the longest stretch of her career with the Western New York Flash and North Carolina Courage (the Flash were relocated to North Carolina and renamed the Courage in 2017), where she played from 2015 to 2019. The next year, Eddy was traded to Gotham, where she stayed until moving to Houston in 2022. She was waived by the Dash before the 2023 season and has been unattached since then. 

Eddy is a three-time NWSL Championship winner, with the Flash in 2016 and the Courage in 2018 and 2019, as well as a three-time Supporters Shield winner with the Courage. A native of Costa Mesa, she attended USC as a dual-sport athlete in soccer and lacrosse, scoring 16 goals in 77 appearances for the soccer team.

“Liz has been a professional in this league for a long time, and so for her to step into a role within this team, the transition will be really quick,” said Interim Head Coach Becki Tweed. “She walked into the locker room on day one and it felt like she'd been in for two months already.”

In fact, Eddy has been with the team since Monday, when she arrived at 5:30 in the morning from the East Coast. She drove to the Angel City training facility in Thousand Oaks to practice with the team, then went straight to Orange County, a drive that took two and a half hours, to surprise her family.

Though she says signing with ACFC was first and foremost a soccer decision, proximity to family was also a major draw. “My dad had a gnarly stroke about 11 months ago,” Eddy says. “So him being able to come to my games, I think any time he can be with family and get invited to things, it’s so good for him. The more he’s back in normal life, the stronger and healthier he'll get.”

Soccer-wise, Eddy says she was impressed with Tweed’s vision for the team. The two first met when she was playing at Gotham and Tweed was an assistant coach there. When Tweed called to invite her to LA, she said, “‘Here's my vision, this is where I see you, I want you to be a part of this, this is how we're going to play, this style suits you.’”

In terms of that style match, Eddy says she enjoys attacking from wide areas, which fits Angel City’s tendency to look to overload the wings. “I like attacking one-v-ones, playing wide and isolated,” she says. “I love combination play and going to goal. Angel City plays with wide players that attack from the backline, in the midfield, and in the front line.”

For Tweed, Eddy is a fit both as a player and personality-wise. “She's super coachable and whatever game plan you put out there, she will always try to execute,” said Tweed. “She's brilliant on the ball. She's a workhorse. She's a competitor. She'll bring competition every single day to the group on and off the field.”