Kristen Anne Mewis (born February 25, 1991) is an American professional soccer midfielder who currently plays for Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and the US national team.
Head coach Tom Sermanni summoned Mewis to the national training camp in January 2013 in preparation for a friendly match against Scotland. She made her senior team debut against Scotland on February 9, 2013, and was included to the 2013 Algarve Cup roster. On June 15, 2013, near her home in Massachusetts, Mewis scored the game’s first goal in the third minute of a friendly match against South Korea.
Mewis dropped off the national team radar after gaining 15 caps between 2013 and 2014. In December 2019, new coach Vlatko Andonovski summoned her back up to a USWNT talent identification training camp after a five-year layoff. Prior to a friendly against the Netherlands in October and November 2020, she was called to the complete senior squad training camps. Mewis made her first appearance in over six years against the Netherlands, coming on as a second-half substitute and scoring in the 70th minute. Her second international goal came 2,722 days after her first, in June 2013, marking the team’s longest goal drought ever.
Mewis made some revelations regarding her ups and downs on getting summoned back to the National Team in a piece titled “I was done being ordinary.” written by Seth Vertelney on Goal.com in October 2020, after winning the Challenge Cup with the Houston Dash. Mewis revealed in this piece that she had suffered a significant injury sometime after the 2014 season and had time to reevaluate her play level. Mewis had to re-establish herself physically and mentally while in treatment. The latter half proved to be the most difficult. While playing for the Houston Dash in 2018, Mewis sustained another tear in her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in her left knee, and had to sideline for the rest of the 2018 season. In May 2019, Mewis came back with the Dash and looked more like the player of 2013 than the one just before the injury. At the end of the 2019 NWSL season, she was rewarded with her first USWNT call-up in more than three years
Achievements:
International
SheBelieves Cup: 2021; 2022
Olympic Bronze Medal: 2021
Club
Houston Dash
NWSL Challenge Cup Champions: 2020
Individual
Mewis was the United States Soccer Federation’s 2008 Young Female Athlete of the Year.
She holds the 300 meters (42.2 s) and 600 meters (1:37) indoor track records at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School