North Carolina Courage

NWSL

The North Carolina Courage are an American professional football team based in Cary, North Carolina, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Club was founded on January 9, 2017.

Signature Fun Facts

What makes North Carolina Courage what it is.

Her first professional goal was assisted by fellow England youth international Erica Meg Parkinson, producing only the third teenager-to-teenager goal in NWSL history.

She made history as the first-ever TCU Horned Frog drafted into the NWSL.

More Fun Facts

Quirky facts from the North Carolina Courage squad.

She didn’t make her youth club’s “A” team and spent six years on the “B” team of the SoCal Blues. She was repeatedly told she was too small, too slow, and not good enough—but she refused to quit.

Her first professional NWSL goal made history: at 18, she became the youngest player ever to score for North Carolina Courage in a NWSL regular-season match.

Riley was cut from her local Olympic Development Program (ODP) tryouts at age 12, leading her to think her soccer dreams were over. Four years later, she became a key midfielder for the U.S. U-17 Women's National Team.

She cherishes playing in the record-breaking match at Camp Nou, a moment that changed women's football history.

She has a full "Vine Shrine" at home—built by her mum, who is her biggest supporter.

She made the Nadeshiko League Best XI twice while still in high school and attended the awards ceremony in her school uniform.

At age 16, she became the youngest player ever named to the Nadeshiko League Best XI.

She once tripped over her own shoelace during a college game against Stanford — with no one around her — on national television. She considers it her most embarrassing on-field moment.

She famously scored the winning penalty in the quarterfinal shootout against France at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, sending Australia to the semifinals.