LOS ANGELES — Olivia Moultrie wasn't trying to save the future of women's soccer in the U.S. as much as she was trying to jump-start her own career when she sued the NWSL for the right to play.

Nearly three years later, it looks as if she might have accomplished both.

Moultrie, 18, who next month will begin her fourth NWSL season with the Portland Thorns, is the youngest player on a U.S. national team that opened the 12-team CONCACAF W Gold Cup on Tuesday against the Dominican Republic at Dignity Health Sports Park.

It was Moultrie's courage to successfully challenge the league's age limit in 2021 that opened the door for rising stars such as Chloe Ricketts, Melanie Barcenas and U.S. teammate Jaedyn Shaw, none of whom could have played professionally in the U.S. under the rules Moultrie erased.

"It's a really special thing to be the person who did that," Moultrie said last week, days into her third training camp with the national team. "I was just fighting for something that I felt was right. There was an injustice happening. So now seeing what has come of it has been extremely cool for me."

Age was never more than a number for the precocious Moultrie, who speaks, sounds and acts like someone twice her age.

"I've always kind of been an old soul," she said. "I've always gravitated towards older people, the adults in the room. I prefer to have conversations like that."

As a child growing up in Santa Clarita, she played like someone twice her age as well. She was introduced to the game at 4 and began intense, soccer-specific training three years later, proving such a prodigy she was soon playing with boys' teams in the U.S. Development Academy system — the first girl to do so — and on youth national teams with girls who were two and three years older. She made frequent trips to Europe to train with giant clubs such as Bayern Munich, Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain.

At age 11 she became the youngest girl to accept a college scholarship when she committed to North Carolina. At age 13 she became the youngest girl to publicly give up a college scholarship when she signed with the Wasserman Media Group, U.S. soccer's most powerful agency, then accepted a multiyear endorsement deal with Nike. She also accepted an offer to train with the NWSL's Portland Thorns, moving with her parents and two younger sisters to Oregon.

So when the league told her she'd have to wait until her 18th birthday to play for the team, her first question was why?

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