The casual sports fan likely shrugged off the recent news that the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) has decided to suspend operations.

To him, the decision was probably just another reminder of how difficult it is to sustain a professional sports league. The WUSA failed, just as the North American Soccer League, the United States Football League and the American Basketball League had done before it.

But for at least one Harvard soccer player, it meant much more.

Given the opportunity, senior midfielder Katie Westfall had intended to continue her illustrious soccer career in the WUSA next year.

Now she must face the daunting notion that the current season will likely be her last.

Thinking ahead to graduation, Westfall noted that a few of last year’s seniors have already come back and warned the current crop about how much they are going to miss soccer.

“They told us to take advantage of it,” Westfall said. “I think it’s going to be one of those things that we won’t appreciate as much until it’s gone.”

Westfall has been playing soccer since she was eight years old. Growing up with five brothers in Johnsburg, Ill.—an area with few other talented female soccer players—she honed her skills playing on men’s teams and in leagues with women much older than her.

When it came time for her to choose a college, Westfall initially planned to follow a family tradition and attend Notre Dame, but she visited Harvard with a friend and became enamored with it.

“I knew that if I got into here, this is where I wanted to go,” she said.

Westfall quickly made her mark for the Crimson, racking up six goals and six assists as a freshman on her way to the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award. She also was named First-Team All-Ivy, which has become somewhat of a tradition for Westfall—she’s been named First-Team in each of her three seasons at Harvard.

As a sophomore, Westfall was also a Third-Team All-American and First-Team All-Northeast selection. She was named Third-Team All-Northeast last year.

Through six games this year, she has recorded two assists while firing a team-high thirteen shots on goal.

Westfall did not initially consider playing in the WUSA, but she found herself checking the league website and watching the Boston Breakers more often as her career progressed.

“I was attracted to the lifestyle of it,” she said. “I decided it was something I wanted to focus on.”