Jennifer Ruiz

Early life

Ruiz was born in Anaheim, California and attended Corona High School in Corona, California.

At Corona, she was a Mountain View All-League selection and three-time MVP. In 1998, she was selected to the 1998 Mountain View First Team. She played with the Olympic Development Program district and state team in 1998 and 1999. In 2001, she was named Citrus Belt 2001 Athlete of the Year and 2001 Corona-NorCo District Athlete of the Year.

In 2000, Ruiz played with the Southern California Blues U-16 and helped the team win a national title. She helped the Southern California Blues U-17 team place second at the National Championship.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)

Ruiz attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 2001–2004. During her freshman year in 2001, she played in 20 games of the season with one start against Kansas in which she scored two goals. She scored a last-minute goal against league rival BYU in the Mountain West Conference championship game.

In 2003, as part of the team's defense that allowed just 27 goals the entire season, she helped the team tie the school record. Ruiz was named to both the All-MWC Second Team, and to the MWC All-Tournament Team.

In 2004, Ruiz started 18 of 18 games (missing one game due to a red card) and led a defense that only allowed 15 goals all season (0.76 per game). She was named to the Soccer Buzz Team All-Region, First Team All Mountain West Conference, and First Team Mountain West Conference Tournament teams.

Bay Area Breeze

From 2011–2012, Ruiz played for the Bay Area Breeze in the Women's Premier Soccer League. As captain of the 2012 team, she scored four goals and started all 10 games in the WPSL season and all 4 games during the UK tour. Ruiz led an offense from the attacking midfield position that went 4–0 on the UK tour. She scored a goal and had an assist in the team's 2–0 victory over Liverpool L.F.C..

During the 2011 season with the Breeze, Ruiz signed for the last game of the season and playoffs and helped the team win the WPSL Pacific North Division Championship.

Seattle Reign FC

In 2013, as part of the NWSL Player Allocation, she joined Seattle Reign FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She made seven appearances for the club during the inaugural season, tallying 386 minutes on the defensive line.

International

As of December 2012, Ruiz has 22 caps with the Mexico women's national football team and three goals. Ruiz began training with the Mexico women's national football team in 2003 and played in the 2003 Australia Cup. She had seven full international caps for the team that qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In 2011, after a seven year hiatus from soccer, Ruiz returned to the national team and scored the game-winning goal against Colombia in the Pan American Games, resulting in the team winning the bronze medal. This was Mexico's second bronze medal for women's soccer at the Pan American Games.

In January 2012, Ruiz represented Mexico at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers in Vancouver, British Columbia, scoring two goals and providing one assist.

Coaching career

In June 2012, Ruiz was a guest coach at the Julie Foudy Leadership Academy. She is also a youth soccer coach for the Palo Alto Soccer Club.

Personal

Ruiz is married to Kevin Williams and together they are parents of two children. During a hiatus from soccer after graduating from UNLV, Ruiz taught two years in the inner-city of Los Angeles, California with Teach for America (AmeriCorps). She later moved to Brazil, where her second child was born, and worked alongside her husband as Christian missionaries in the interior of the country.