The road to the Orlando Pride for Rachel Hill has been a strange one. Drafted by the Portland Thorns in the 2017 NWSL Draft, traded to Orlando a week later, and finally joining the Pride after graduating from the University of Connecticut in June. Since then, she has been a tremendous asset to Head Coach Tom Sermanni in the attack. She has now played in 12 games this season, starting in seven, and scoring three goals.
Her first career goal came in New Jersey against Sky Blue FC, which was a game-winner in the 86th minute. Her last two goals came in the Pride’s most recent game against the Boston Breakers, her hometown team.
After the Breakers match, Hill received numerous praises from her coaches and teammates. Tom Sermanni, especially, values the natural talents of the rookie and her ability to get to the right place to score goals.
"Lloyd [Yaxley] our goalkeeper coach called it, he said he fancied that she’d score at least one tonight so he's gone away there claiming all credit for that as goalkeeper coaches do,” Sermanni said after the match. “But she's always looked dangerous, and I think again it was symptomatic of that first 30 minutes. So the fact that the goals that she scored, it was the play building up to the goals that I thought was fantastic as well. But she's full of energy, she keeps making runs in the box, she keeps getting on the end of things, and she's a real handful to play against. So, again, it's all those factors, it's nothing particular. We didn't do anything in particularly different in training this week but certainly allowed her to come out and score two goals."
With Hill coming into the team from the University of Connecticut, she already had a nose for goal, scoring 61 goals in 89 collegiate appearances, which is second all-time in career goals among UConn women's soccer players. Coming into the Pride team with offensive talents like Alex Morgan and Marta has given Hill a chance to learn from some of the best players in the women’s game today and the opportunity to improve on her goal scoring form as it translates to the professional game.
“I learn from them every day,” Hill said of Morgan and Marta, “There’s so much to learn. They’re both such great players and so I just keep trying to take little things each and every day at training and then doing games when I’m not playing, when I’m on the bench, I can learn just as much. So, yeah I take things from them every single day. It’s special to be playing with them.”
Hill and the Pride will look to continue their excellent run of form as they take on the Seattle Reign on Thursday night. Kickoff at Orlando City Stadium is set for 8:00 pm.
