Retiring soccer star Lauren Holiday among Indiana's greatest

If Lauren Holiday is not the greatest female athlete ever to come out of Indiana, she makes the short list.

The Indianapolis midfielder used the World Cup celebration Tuesday in Los Angeles as the setting to announce her retirement from the women's national team. Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl reported the news first on Twitter.

Tuesday also marked the second wedding anniversary of the former Lauren Cheney, 27, to Jrue Holiday, 25, an NBA guard for the New Orleans Pelicans. They met as athletes at UCLA.

Holiday has played for the national team since 2007. She scored the United States' third goal Sunday in the USWNT 5-2 title-clinching victory over Japan.

She leaves with 130 caps (appearances) and 24 goals in her national team career.

Holiday has said she plans to finish the National Women's Soccer League season with FC Kansas City. The U.S. team is to play 10 games this fall, including Aug. 16 at Pittsburgh and Aug. 19 at Chattanooga, Tenn. Holiday would likely play in some of those games, if not all.

She was a national Player of the Year at Ben Davis High School, a four-time college All-American who played in four College Cups, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. If she had stuck around another year, she could have gone for a third gold at Rio de Janeiro.

Her story has always been compelling, given that she had open-heart surgery at age 3.

"At one time in our lives, we thought she was gone," said her father, George Cheney, in a 2008 interview. "We had a lot of fear that we were going to lose her because of her heart problem.

"She never looked back. She's got more heart than anyone I know."

Among native Hoosier athletes, she ranks with these all-time greats:

>> Kathy Ellis, Indianapolis. As a 17-year-old, she won four swimming medals, including two relay golds, at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

>> Bridget Sloan, Pittsboro. The only gymnast to have won world, U.S. and NCAA titles in the all-around. She was a member of the United States' silver-winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sloan has one more collegiate season at Florida.

>> Maicel Malone, Indianapolis. Gold medalist in the 1,600-meter relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The sprinter was a four-time NCAA track champion for Arizona State, set an American indoor record in the 400 meters and won 11 state titles for North Central High School.

>> Katie Douglas, Indianapolis. The basketball guard recently retired after a 14-year WNBA career in which she won a championship with the Indiana Fever in 2012. She ranks ninth in league history with 5,563 points. At Purdue, Douglas played for the 1999 NCAA champions and led the Boilermakers to the 2001 national title game. At Perry Meridian, she was runner-up for IndyStar Miss Basketball in 1997.

Holiday became a soccer player because that's what an older brother played. She competed against boys until she was 13, and for years afterward against men in pickup games. Sometimes the men were convinced she couldn't be that good.

"Nobody ever believed it until they saw it," said Tamba Samba, a former Ben Davis soccer player. "They were shocked by it. You can't warn everybody for that."

Holiday also played for the Giants in basketball, occasionally missing games because of soccer commitments.

She was a breakout star at the 2011 World Cup, totaling two goals and three assists in making the tournament's all-star team. She was MVP of the NWSL in 2013, when she was the league's top scorer, and MVP of the championship game in 2014. She was also U.S. Soccer's 2014 female Athlete of the Year.

During the recent World Cup, Holiday was second on the U.S. team with eight chances created and 64 touches in the attacking third.

Despite her achievements, she has never had the celebrity status attached to teammates Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach and now Carli Lloyd. Holiday has said she is camera shy and content with the attention she has received. Many of her Twitter posts are Bible verses.

"We don't play for the game. We don't play for the money," she told The Star during a May visit to Indy. "We play because we were a little girl once who had a dream and we wanted to play on that national team. We wanted to go to the Olympics or World Cup. It's important for kids to know that someone once believed in me and I believe in them. I hope that they follow and pursue everything they dream of."

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Call Star reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

Lauren (Cheney) Holiday file

Born: Sept. 30, 1987.

Hometown: Indianapolis.

High school: Ben Davis.

College: UCLA.

Pro team: FC Kansas City.

Highlights: Midfielder for 2015 Women's World Cup champions. Made all-star team and was sixth in tournament in scoring (two goals, three assists) at 2011 World Cup. Finished with 130 caps and 24 goals. … Two-time Olympic gold medalist. … UCLA's only four-time All-American in women's soccer. Played in four College Cups. Set school records for goals (71, tie), points (173) and game-winning goals (28). … Won every high school national Player of the Year award. Had 118 goals and 67 assists at Ben Davis.