Kailey Utley

Kailey Nicole Utley (born December 17, 1993) is an American former professional soccer player. She played college soccer for the West Virginia Mountaineers before spending stints with multiple semi-professional clubs. She played one season professionally with USL Super League club Lexington SC to end her career.

Early life Utley is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. She attended Pattonville High School, where she made the school's varsity team as a freshman. She soon became a major offensive threat for her school, recording multiple hat-tricks and braces, being named to various All-Metro, All-Region, and All-Midwest teams, and contributing to several district titles. Utley also played basketball and softball at Pattonville High, making her a tri-sport athlete. Two of her goals came in an October 2014 match against Oklahoma State, in which she scored both the game-tying goal and overtime match-winner to help the Mountaineers inch closer to winning the conference. Her performances earned her a spot on the All-Big 12 first team, In November 2015, she recorded a second-half hat-trick against Loyola Marymount in her final-ever collegiate home game to help West Virginia win, 5–2, and advance to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight for the second time in program history; the Mountaineers were then eliminated from the competition by Penn State in what Utley believed to be her final career match of soccer. In 2021 and 2022, she played for FC Olympia's indoor soccer team, setting a single-season goals scored record in 2022.

In 2022, as a member of the United States Army, Utley participated in the Women's Military World Football Cup. She helped the United States outscore opponents 18–6 and finish the tournament in fourth place, the team's best finish since 2004. She later joined semiprofessional side Pacific Northwest SC, where she was named the Northwest Conference Offensive Player of the Year.

In the summer of 2024, Lexington SC's professional team announced that they had signed Utley ahead of the inaugural USL Super League season. She scored her first professional goal on September 13, netting the opening goal in a defeat to the Dallas Trinity after going on an individual run that involved evading defender Hannah Davison before scoring past the goalkeeper. On February 13, 2025, Utley announced her retirement from soccer.

Personal life At West Virginia University, Utley majored in Biology. In the fall of 2016, she enrolled in an optometry program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and earned a full-ride scholarship to become an officer in the United States Army the following year. Utley's decision followed in the footsteps of her two grandfathers, both of whom served in the United States military, and her brother, who also joined the Army. Utley eventually served as an Army optometrist at Joint Base Lewis–McChord before playing professionally for Lexington SC.

Honors and awards West Virginia Mountaineers

Big 12 Conference: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Big 12 Conference women's soccer tournament: 2013, 2014

Fire and Ice SC

Women's Premier Soccer League: 2017

Individual

First-team All-Big 12: 2015 Big 12 tournament all-tournament team: 2015