2022 Orlando Pride Season in Review: Kaylie Collins

The Orlando Pride selected goalkeeper Kaylie Collins in the fourth round (No. 34 overall) of the 2021 NWSL Draft. That’s a spot where most players don’t hang around long. But Orlando saw potential in Collins and kept the former USC goalkeeper around as a practice player, signing her as a National Team Replacement Player in June of 2021 and rewarding her with a new two-year contract in February, but placing her on the club’s supplemental roster.

Collins, however, did get to see a little action with the first team in 2022, and if not for her picking up a knock this season, she might have gotten more minutes when the Pride were dealing with multiple goalkeeper injuries.

Let’s take a look back at her very brief season in review.

Statistical Breakdown

Collins did not make a regular-season appearance in 2022 but she did play in one match in the Pride’s 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup, making her professional debut in the team’s final game of the competition on April 23 at NJ/NY Gotham FC in Red Bull Arena. The young stopper played 90 minutes and allowed only one goal — a penalty by Kristy Mewis in first-half stoppage time. She finished the season with a 1.00 goals-against average and made six saves in her one game, earning her team a point on the road in a 1-1 draw.

Best Game

This will be one of the easier “best game” selections of our Pride Season in Review pieces, as Collins only played in the one game. She played well, especially in the second half, when she was called upon to make important saves against Ifeoma Onumonu and Mewis. Those were the toughest of her six stops but the young goalkeeper did well to help the Pride allow no goals from the run of play and earn just the team’s second point of the competition.

2022 Final Grade

Due to the small sample size, Collins receives a grade of incomplete for the 2022 season. However, her one performance against Gotham showed that she has the potential to earn a spot on the senior roster. She was, after all, the only Pride goalkeeper not to allow a goal from the run of play this season. We’ll have to see a larger sample size, obviously, but Collins has managed to stick around as the team’s third goalkeeper. A wrist injury sustained in August may have prevented her from getting on the field more when the Pride sustained a series of injuries at the goalkeeper position, which necessitated the signing of emergency backup goalkeeper Kelly Rowswell.

2023 Outlook

A lot can change over the off-season, but since Collins is under contract through 2023, we expect that she will be fighting for a spot on the senior roster when the Pride’s preseason camp opens. She showed well in her only senior team appearance so far, and if she can continue to develop her game, there’s no reason to think she won’t be in Orlando next year.

This is the first of our 2022 Orlando Pride Season in Review articles. Every player who played minutes this past season and who finished the year on the club roster will be reviewed. Players who logged fewer than 360 minutes (combined regular season plus Challenge Cup) will receive a composite score between 1 and 10 as determined by a panel of The Mane Land writers who cover the Pride, while those who did not reach that threshold will receive an incomplete grade.