Heading into the first weekend of the 2018 National Women’s Soccer League season, Nittany Lions are well represented on opening day rosters in one of the world’s premier leagues.

Penn State women’s soccer has 11 alumnae on rosters in the nine-team league — the third most of any college program.

• Alyssa Naeher (2006-09) — Chicago Red Stars goalkeeper
• Frannie Crouse (2014-17) — North Carolina Courage forward
• Ali Krieger (2003-06) — Orlando Pride defender
• Christine Nairn (2009-12) — Orlando Pride midfielder
• Elizabeth Ball (2014-17) — Portland Thorns defender
• Britt Eckerstrom (2011-15) — Portland Thorns goalkeeper
• Mallory Weber (2012-15) — Portland Thorns forward
• Raquel “Rocky” Rodriguez (2012-15) — Sky Blue FC midfielder
• Whitney Church (2011-14) — Washington Spirit defender
• Joanna Lohman (2000-03) — Washington Spirit midfielder
• Tiffany Weimer (2002-05) — Washington Spirit forward

The list is highlighted by current U.S. national team starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, two-time World Cup veteran Ali Krieger, and 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy winner Rocky Rodriguez.

Naeher heads into the season as the odds-on favorite to take the league’s goalkeeper of the year award, an honor she won back in 2014, according to general managers across the NWSL. Krieger, whose U.S. national team career may be at the end now that she’s outside the federation’s allocated player pool, is still one of the most effective backs in the league — earning NWSL Best XI honors in four of her five seasons, including last year. Rodriquez will spend her third season in New Jersey, where she won NWSL rookie of the year in 2016, ahead of leading Costa Rica in its World Cup qualifying campaign this October.

A pair of rookies will also make their professional debuts after taking Penn State to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament last season. Frannie Crouse was drafted in the first round by the defending NWSL regular season leaders, the North Carolina Courage, and Elizabeth Ball earned a spot as a free agent with the 2017 NWSL Champions, the Portland Thorns, after going undrafted. Defender Brittany Basinger, who was selected in the 2018 NWSL Draft third round, did not end up on the Washington Spirit’s final roster.

While Basinger won’t be with the Spirit this weekend, the club does feature three Nittany Lions, including two of the league’s elder statesmen. Alongside fourth-year veteran Whitney Church is Joanna Lohman and Tiffany Weimer — a pair of players that has seesawed between the professional and semi-professional ranks of American soccer, as well as European leagues, in the 26 years of post-collegiate experience between them.

Lohman, who prepares for her fourth season with the Spirit, is coming off an ACL tear that knocked her out for all of 2017. Weimer, on the other hand, will join Washington after getting picked up off waivers. The 34-year old’s club last season, the Boston Breakers, folded in January. The two trailblazers have been through it all in their careers, hoping to one day provide a viable professional opportunity for American women’s soccer players.

“Hopefully a couple steps back means a couple steps forward,” Weimer told the Houston Chronicle. “I was part of the WPS when that [folded]. [NWSL] came from it. Sometimes we have to suffer. My generation of players isn’t necessary going to live the glory, but hopefully the next generation will be able to live it.”

With salaries ranging from $15,750 to $44,000, most women’s soccer players aren’t able to play past their mid-20s. Since last season, three Nittany Lions who had played last season in the NWSL are no longer in the league.

Nickolette Driesse, who captained Penn State in 2016, was waived by the Orlando Pride in February. Her teammate in Orlando, Maddy Evans, who was taken in the first-ever NWSL Draft back in 2013, retired last August.

“My decision wasn’t made on one or two things. It was made on a bunch of different things, but I’m 26, turning 27, and I make $16,000 a year,” Evans told the Orlando Sentinel. “… I think that obviously it’s gotten better every single year…Unfortunately, it just didn’t stay kind of caught up with where I needed to be.”

Another major role player in the league, Sky Blue FC’s Maya Hayes stopped short of saying she is retired, but will sit out the season in order to pursue a master’s degree.

“This was a really hard decision to make. After taking a lot of time to think and talk with friends and family, it just seemed like the timing was right to switch gears a little bit,” said Hayes, Penn State’s top goalscorer in the Erica Dambach era. “Getting my Master’s is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Some good opportunities arose for me, and I ultimately decided to take advantage of them.”