Sarah Elaine Griffith (born April 30, 1999) is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. She played

college soccer College soccer, called college football in some countries, is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. While it is most widespread in the United States, it is also prominent in Japan, South Kore ...

for the

Purdue Boilermakers The Purdue Boilermakers are the official college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletics teams representing Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. As is common with athletic nicknames, the Boilermakers nickname ...

before being drafted by the

Chicago Red Stars Chicago Stars Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the Chicago metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league as the Chic ...

in the third round of the

2022 NWSL Draft The 2022 NWSL Draft was the 10th annual meeting of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchises to select eligible college players. It was held on December 18, 2021, and hosted remotely by CBS Sports. Format * All 12 teams of the National ...

Early life

Griffith was a ball girl for the

Waubonsie Valley High School Waubonsie Valley High School (WVHS) is a public four-year high school in Aurora, Illinois, United States. It was established in 1975; it is one of 3 high schools in Indian Prairie School District 204, along with Neuqua Valley High School and Met ...

girls' soccer team, and later graduated from the school.

College career

Griffith initially committed to play

at Illinois State, later de-committing and committing to play at

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donat ...

. She played at Purdue from 2017 to 2021. She scored her first collegiate goal on August 27, 2017, against

Indiana State Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified ...

. In 2018, Griffith was diagnosed with

spondylolisthesis Spondylolisthesis is when one spinal vertebra slips out of place compared to another. While some medical dictionaries define spondylolisthesis specifically as the forward or anterior displacement of a vertebra over the vertebra inferior to it (o ...

; she would undergo spinal surgery as she

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

the 2018 season. She was named to the All-

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

second team for the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season. On August 19, 2021, she scored a goal against

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

which was featured on ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

'', and on August 29, 2021, she recorded a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against

Ball State Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. T ...

. For the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, she was Big Ten Forward of the Year and All-Big Ten first team; she was also named

United Soccer Coaches The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than ...

All-America Second Team and set a Purdue record with 16 goals. As a student at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

, Griffith majored in psychological sciences.

Club career

In December 2021, Griffith was selected by the Chicago Red Stars (later named Chicago Stars FC) in the third round of the

. She made her NWSL regular season debut on April 30, 2022, playing 80 minutes against

Racing Louisville FC Racing Louisville Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Louisville, Kentucky, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team i ...

. She scored her first goal for the club against

Orlando Pride The Orlando Pride are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Orlando, Florida, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). The Pride began play in the 2016 National Women's Soccer League season, 2016 ...

on May 22, 2022. On July 10, 2022, she scored against

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acqui ...

in the

stoppage time Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the ga ...

. On November 1, 2022, it was announced that Griffith was signed on-loan by

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australi ...

for the

2022–23 A-League Women The 2022–23 A-League Women, known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the fifteenth season of the A-League Women, the Australian national women's soccer competition. Western United joined as an expansion club, taking the tota ...

season. On November 26, 2022, Griffith scored a

in a match against

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

leading the team to a 4–2 victory. In mid-February 2023, Griffith returned from her loan early to prepare for the

2023 National Women's Soccer League season 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

. On March 27, 2025, it was announced that Griffith was being loaned to Calgary Wild FC through the remainder of her contract with Chicago. On April 16, 2025, she started in the league's inaugural game, a 1-0 loss to

Vancouver Rise FC Vancouver Rise FC is a professional women's soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that competes in the Northern Super League, in the top flight of the Canadian soccer league system#Women, Canadian soccer league system. Majority-own ...

Personal life

Griffith was born to parents Peter and Melissa, and was raised with an older brother, Noah, who played college soccer for Illinois Tech, and a younger brother, Aaron.

Career statistics

Honors

Individual *

All-America Second Team:

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

All-North Region First Team:

Forward of the Year:

* All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

First Team:

* All-

Second Team:

All-

Tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

Team:

References

External links

*
Purdue bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Sarah 1999 births American expatriate sportspeople in Australia American expatriate women's soccer players American women's soccer players Chicago Stars FC players Chicago Red Stars players Calgary Wild FC players Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Living people National Women's Soccer League players Newcastle Jets FC (women) players Women's association football forwards Purdue Boilermakers women's soccer players Chicago Red Stars draft picks Soccer players from Illinois 21st-century American sportswomen Northern Super League players