Penn State women’s soccer signed the nation’s top-ranked 2019 recruiting class per TopDrawerSoccer and will welcome nine freshmen for the upcoming season.

Erica Dambach and her staff combed the country for elite talent and secured national letters of intent from a host of players with U.S. youth national team experience. Seven different states are represented in this year’s class, including California’s Kate Wiesner, who arrives in State College as the No. 1 overall prospect.

“We are very excited to welcome the 2019 recruiting class to the Penn State women’s soccer family,” Dambach said in a release. “We know that this class will have an enormously positive impact on our program and feel like the future is very bright.”

The Nittany Lions lost five multi-year starters to graduation, but return their top three goal scorers from last season in Kristin Schnurr, Frankie Tagliaferri, and Kerry Abello. Rising redshirt senior and first team All-American Kaleigh Riehl will again anchor Penn State’s defense next fall.

There’s a good chance many of the team’s incoming freshmen will make significant contributions this season, as three of Penn State’s starting midfielders — Emily Ogle, Charlotte Williams, and Marissa Sheva — extinguished their eligibility following a 1-0 loss to eventual national champion Florida State in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Though Wiesner is undoubtedly the headliner of this year’s class, there is plenty of talent from top to bottom for Dambach to replenish the roster. Midfielder Jordan Canniff, forward Payton Linnehan, defender Leah Scarpelli, and goalkeeper Julia Dohle are all top 20 prospects in their own right.

“Probably the most talented left-sided player in the country, Kate has a work ethic and mentality that you often see only in players much more senior than her,” Dambach said of Wiesner.

Midfielder Cori Dyke has traveled all over the world with the U.S. youth national teams, including trips to Italy, Australia, England, Spain, and the Netherlands. Her older sister, Camryn, will be a junior midfielder at Notre Dame in the fall.

Dambach said Devon Olive, the latest addition to Penn State’s class, “can play just about anywhere on the field.” Like recent graduate Alina Ortega Jurado, Olive’s versatility will surely come in handy for the Nittany Lions.

Defender Shelby Craft played club soccer for FC Dallas, where she was named a three-time captain. Dambach praised Craft for her physicality and ball-winning skills on the back line. Brooklyn forward Angela Aguero (no relation to Sergio) was a member of the NYCFC development academy. Her creativity on the pitch will be especially fun to watch at Jeffrey Field.

On top of the nine freshmen who will soon begin their Penn State careers, the Nittany Lions also added a key transfer in Boston College All-American Sam Coffey. The rising junior midfielder is eligible to play immediately. 

After losing in the Elite Eight the past two seasons, Penn State has all the pieces in place to make a run at its first College Cup appearance since winning the national championship in 2015.