After making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003, the ASU women’s soccer team could’ve rested on its laurels.

Instead, the Sun Devils and coach Kevin Boyd hauled in a recruiting class expected to immediately improve the team.

ASU signed nine players to letters of intent, including two national team players.

Boyd expects his new crop of recruits to contribute immediately.

“Every player coming in has a chance of being able to play right away,” Boyd said. “Some I expect to start right away. My guess is we’ll have as few as four freshmen starting next year. That’s from a group that lost one player that started [the NCAA Tournament game against Wisconsin].”

Headlining the class are two national team players in goaltender Vittoria Arnold and forward Devin Marshall.

Arnold, who hails from Dallas, won the golden glove at U-17 USYS National Championship in 2009 and is ranked as the No. 28 recruit in the nation by Top Drawer Soccer.

Boyd expects Arnold to compete with returning goaltender Alyssa Gilmore for the starting position in the fall.

“I believe there is going to be a good fight for the starting spot,” Boyd said. “The great thing is that Alyssa Gilmore is a very positive, supportive person, yet she’s competitive and she’ll fight for it. I know Vittoria Arnold is super competitive, so I’m looking forward to seeing those two battle it out.”

Marshall, who comes from San Diego, has international experience as part of the GU15 US National Team and has scored a combined 91 goals in her past three seasons with her club team. Top Drawer Soccer ranked her the No. 21 recruit in the nation.

“She is just a special finisher,” Boyd said.

ASU has also opened up a recruiting pipeline in the state of Washington, particularly the club team Washington Premier. Holland Crook, Josie Graybeal and Kaitlyn Pavlovich are all coming to ASU after playing for Washington Premier.

Sophomore forward Sierra Cook was also a member of Washington Premier, giving ASU four alumni.

“It seems the Pacific Northwest has been a hotbed for us,” Boyd said. “[It] seems fairly obvious that if you live in the Seattle or Portland area, you’re going to want to go to ASU, just [because of] weather conditions.”

The other four members of the class are Blair Anderson, Nicole Battista, Rachael Ritter and Jasmine Roth.

The players represent a wide swath of the country, with players from Washington, California, Utah, Texas, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

But most importantly, Boyd said, is the depth created by the incoming class.

“One of the areas we’ve been lacking is depth — I mean true, competitive depth per position,” Boyd said. “So if we take injuries, which we’ve been taking, we can keep rolling without missing a beat. What we added is three defenders, four midfielders and a forward. That’s a huge amount of depth [were] adding in.”

Reach the reporter at kaglaser@asu.edu