This KC Current player is back on U.S. Women’s National Team, which plays here Saturday

She made her first appearance with the U.S. Women’s National team right out of college in 2018 and hadn’t been back since.

But hard work and personal growth have paved the way for a weekend encore for Kansas City Current defender Hallie Mace: She and the rest of the USWNT will take on the Nigerian women’s national team at noon Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park.

It’s been a long road back for the 25-year-old native Californian.

Mace earned multiple USWNT call-ups when she was younger — she made three appearances before finishing her college career at UCLA. But then the call-ups stopped coming.

Originally drafted into the National Women’s Soccer League by Sky Blue FC (now Gotham FC), Mace decided to sign overseas instead. She played with teams in Australia and Sweden in 2019.

In January 2020, now-disgraced former North Carolina Courage head coach Paul Riley convinced Mace to sign with the NWSL team in Cary, N.C. She represented the Courage during the spring 2020 Challenge Cup and into the NWSL regular season.

But securing steady playing time was a challenge.

“It was tough there just trying to get in the lineup, and the way Paul ran things was really tough,” Mace told The Star. “But I think it kind of made me work on things that I needed to work on in terms of my fitness.”

Even if the Courage’s level of training was more intense than what Mace had experienced abroad, the dearth of playing time was a bitter pill to swallow.

“I think that builds a lot of character in any player that goes through that,” she said.

The trade to Kansas City happened midseason, in July 2021. The Current sent away star Amy Rodriguez in exchange for Mace and Katelyn Rowland; the next day, their new teams played each other in an NWSL match.

Mace debuted for Kansas City in a scoreless draw against her former Carolina teammates. Her tenure in KC had officially begun, and things were looking up.

It wasn’t happenstance, though. Mace said she’d spent her offseason focused on two things: general fitness and playing as a defender.

“I definitely worked super hard in terms of getting fit,” she said. “I knew that was definitely a weakness of mine. And I kind of knew that I was going to be playing outside back.”

Mace’s focus and effort carried into the Current’s preseason camp this year. In the team’s first match of the 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup, against Racing Louisville, her speed and power showed against the opposition’s Jessica MacDonald — one of the most physically dominant forwards in the NWSL.

In KC’s next match, she helped lock down the Chicago Red Stars before evening the score with a stunning shot late in the second half.

“I give a lot of credit to our performance staff,” Mace said. “I think they helped me a lot in terms of getting fit and getting strong and all of that. I think that has helped me a lot in terms of where I’m at now.”

Of course, Mace has had her share of bumps and bruises during this season. An injury — her first of note as a pro — forced her to miss the Current’s final two Challenge Cup games. Then, just as she began to return to fitness, she was sidelined with COVID-19 for a few weeks.

Mace’s work with a sports psychologist this year has helped her overcome the mental frustration and disappointment she’s encountered since leaving college. Their work together enabled Mace to establish a proper routine, which in turn has given her new confidence on the field and off.

“I think the confidence thing probably has helped me the most,” she said. “Just believing in myself and knowing what I bring to the table is honestly all that really matters.

“As long as I believe in myself, I’m going to continue to keep doing well in helping the team. And I feel like we’re doing so well as a team that it is also helped me maybe get seen by (USWNT coach) Vlatko (Andonovski). My teammates are making me better every single day, and they’re letting me play to my strengths and helping me look good.”

Andonovski, who coached the previous iteration of women’s pro soccer in Kansas City and still calls KC home, attends nearly every Current match and continues to like what he sees from Mace.

“Hailie’s call-up is the outcome of good performances,” he said. “It’s not one or two games that she’s played well. We have followed her since the beginning of the season.”

Today, Mace is in the midst of a career-best NWSL season. She’s tallied three goals and four assists as a wing-back and played well enough to earn a spot on the NWSL Team of the Month in July. The Current have a 9-3-6 record when she is on the field and are 3-2-1 when she doesn’t play.

Mace has seen and endured a lot of adversity and change since her first stint with the national team. But her career in 2022 is definitely trending in the right direction.

“My younger self would be super proud of how far that I’ve come,” Mace said.

This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 1:18 PM with the headline "This KC Current player is back on U.S. Women’s National Team, which plays here Saturday."