Orlando Pride Sign Draft Pick Kaylie Collins as National Team Replacement Player

The Orlando Pride have announced the signing of goalkeeper Kaylie Collins as a National Team Replacement Player today. Collins was the club’s fourth-round selection (No. 34 overall) in the 2021 NWSL Draft out of USC. She will be available for the Pride’s match Sunday at the Washington Spirit as Erin McLeod is away on international duty with the Canadian National Team.

The 23-year-old remained at USC to complete her college team’s successful spring season. Collins’ play helped lead the Trojans to the NCAA tournament with a first-round bye as the No. 8 seed. USC fought Ole Miss to a 2-2 draw before falling 3-2 in penalty kicks.

In her four seasons at USC, Collins made 66 appearances with 27 shutouts and a 0.791 goals-against average, making a total of 210 saves.

As a junior, Collins finished ranked third in the Pac-12 with 13 goals against, was eighth in the conference with a 1.13 goals-against average, and was ninth with a .755 save percentage. She only started 11 games, as she missed the first half of the season due to injury.

As a sophomore, Collins was named the Pac-12 Goalkeeper of the Year. She led the conference in shutouts through the regular season and had the ninth-best goals-against average (0.51) in the country. This impressive year earned her United Soccer Coaches All-American second-team and Top Drawer Soccer Best XI second-team honors. Collins was also named to the All-Pac-12 first team and All-Region first team.

Collins also did well as a freshman. She was on the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team following the 2017 season, after appearing in 19 games and making 53 saves. Her seven shutouts ranked seventh among Pac-12 goalkeepers.

Before attending USC, Collins was a four-year starter at Carondelet High School, where she was named a second-team Top Drawer Soccer High School All-American in 2015.

What It Means for Orlando

In the short term, this signing provides coverage while Ashlyn Harris’ primary backup McLeod is away. Harris also has Brittany Wilson as a backup and she’ll likely be the No. 2 while McLeod is unavailable. It’s also possible that both Harris and McLeod could be selected for Olympic play, although recent trends suggest Harris will not go to Japan unless someone gets injured.

In the longer term, Harris is 35 years old and McLeod is 37. Orlando will need to develop a younger goalkeeper, so it looks like both Wilson and Collins will compete to become that player. With this signing, Collins will now have an opportunity to show Marc Skinner what she can do and make her case for staying around longer or being added to the roster in 2022.