Paige Kathleen Nielsen

Paige Nielsen's route to Houston went through five countries. After Seattle Reign selected her 25th overall in the 2016 NWSL College Draft, she was waived within months, and rather than wait for another American opportunity she went abroad: Apollon Ladies in Cyprus, Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia's W-League, then Suwon UDC in South Korea's WK League, where she scored 13 goals in 42 appearances. A short spell at Canberra United followed before she returned to the NWSL with Washington Spirit in 2019.

Nielsen made 38 appearances for the Spirit and was part of the squad that won the NWSL Championship in 2021. Angel City FC picked her seventh overall in the 2022 NWSL Expansion Draft, and she signed a two-year extension with the Los Angeles club that December. In April 2024, she was traded to Houston Dash in a deal involving $50,000 in allocation money and a further $50,000 in transfer funds, and she has since made 43 appearances in the Dash defence.

Her college career at North Carolina laid the foundation for all of it: 83 appearances and 13 goals for the Tar Heels between 2012 and 2015, a national championship in 2012, and the captaincy in her final season. Before that, she was a four-year varsity starter at Alta High School in Utah, having started out with Avalanche Soccer Club as a child in Lincoln, Nebraska.