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Women’s professional sports are having their moment. TV coverage and viewership of the WNBA, NWSL, LPGA and women’s pro tennis tour all increased in 2025. In addition, the women’s Olympic gold medal hockey final in February 2026 set a new U.S. viewership record at 5.3 million viewers. As women’s sports continue to shine, Arkansas has its share of former and current professional women athletes who have carved their own paths on the court and the field.
Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA)
The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) celebrates its thirtieth season in 2026. Teams compete from May to September, and this season features two new teams: Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. Since the league’s inception in 1996, Arkansas has seen several former Razorbacks head to the league. The first pro WNBA player from Arkansas was Christy Smith. Smith led the Arkansas Razorbacks’ women’s basketball team to its only Final Four appearance to date in 1998. She was drafted by the Charlotte Sting in the second round that same year and played pro ball for two years.
In 2004, Shameka Christon was drafted fifth overall. The former Razorback had already garnered numerous honors, including SEC player of the year. Christon spent eleven years in the WNBA, playing for the New York Liberty and earning All-Star status in 2009. She also played for the Chicago Sky, San Antonio Stars, and Phoenix Mercury, logging 317 pro appearances and over 3,000 points, despite an eye injury in 2010 and a knee injury the following year. After retiring from the WNBA after the 2015 season, the Hot Springs native returned to Arkansas where she has run skills and drills camps for the next generation of pro players and taken on the role of color commentator for the Little Rock Trojans women’s basketball team.
Arkansas Razorback standouts Chelsea Dungee and Destiny Slocum made history in 2021 when they were both picked in the first round of the WNBA draft. The pair of guards combined at Arkansas for the 2020-2021 season, with Dungee becoming the Razorbacks’ highest scoring player at 2,147 points. Slocum was the team’s second-leading scorer for that year, her only year as a Razorback. Dungee earned the fifth pick in the draft and Slocum the fourteenth overall. Dungee spent one season playing for the Dallas Wings before leaving the league. She’s now an assistant coach for the University of Alabama’s women’s team. Slocum played two seasons in the WNBA before taking her professional career overseas. She has played professional basketball in Mexico, Europe, and China.
Marquesha Davis is an Arkansas native who played in McGehee before finishing her high school career at Springdale High School. Davis played at the University of Arkansas for three years before transferring to Ole Miss, where she scored over 1,000 points in two years with the team. Davis was drafted 11th overall by the New York Liberty in 2024. She played in the WNBA for two years, though she struggled to find regular playing time. Davis has played internationally but is currently recovering from an injury as she takes a break from her pro career.
Arkansas’s most recent pro baller in the WNBA is Zaay Green. Green played for three years for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where she hit her stride as a guard. She played her final season at the University of Alabama and was drafted by the Washington Mystics, becoming the first player from Pine Bluff in the WNBA draft. Green still plays professionally abroad.
NWSL/USL Super League
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) formed in 2012, on the heels of the former league, Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS). Since the NWSL’s inception, Arkansas has sent several players to the pro league, beginning with Ashleigh Ellenwood in 2016. Ellenwood was drafted in the fourth round and holds the honor of being the first women’s soccer player from Arkansas to join the NWSL. However, since then, a slew of talented players have succeeded as Arkansas Razorbacks and joined the professional ranks.
Goalkeeper Katie Lund broke open the flood of soccer players to the pros in 2020. After having a standout season with Arkansas in 2019, Lund went undrafted and instead earned her spot by impressing the Washington Spirit staff during trials. She signed and played for the Spirit for one year, then was selected fifth in the 2020 NWSL expansion draft, which gave expansion team Racing Louisville F.C. the opportunity to draft players already playing professionally. Lund excelled at her new club, earning the starting spot between the goalposts. In 2022, she broke the NWSL single-season record with 112 saves. She played every minute of the 2023-24 season before being sidelined with an injury in 2025. Currently, Lund is on a three-year contract with the Chicago Red Stars, where she splits starting time with former U.S. Women’s National Team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.
After Lund joined the NWSL, a host of other players from Arkansas followed. Forward Parker Goins and midfielder Taylor Malham both debuted in the NWSL in 2022. Both Goins and Parker were integral players to the success of the Razorback soccer team, winning three SEC regular-season titles. Goins joined Racing Louisville FC for three seasons, providing creative play off the bench. In 2025, she joined the newly formed USL Super League and plays for the Tampa Bay Sun FC. Racing FC also acquired Malham for the 2022 season. In 2023, she joined Chicago Stars FC, where she has earned her spot as a strong defender. Malham played in twenty-six games in the 2025 season, over 2,340 minutes of game time, and secured a contract extension with her team through 2027. Look for Malham (now Taylor Wood) to be impactful in the Chicago Stars 2026 NWSL season.
In the last two years, a handful of talented players from the Arkansas Razorback soccer team have joined the professional rankings. Anna Podojil and Bea Franklin were drafted 35th and 41st overall, with Podojil playing one year for the Washington Spirit and Franklin joining Chicago Stars FC, where she has excelled and signed a contract through 2027. In 2025, the NWSL became the first American professional sports league to discard the draft. Instead, graduating seniors immediately became free agents, allowing players to negotiate with teams they want to sign with. Kiley Dulaney, hailing from Jacksonville, signed with the Washington Spirit. After one year in the NWSL, Dulaney switched to the new USL Super League, where she plays for Dallas Trinity FC.
Other former Arkansas players also joined the USL Super League for its inaugural season, including Kelsey Oyler with Spokane Zephyr FC and Ava Tankersley with Tampa Bay Sun FC. Tankersley became a league champion when Tampa Bay won the inaugural season and chose to retire from the sport. In addition to these pro players, former Arkansas players Morgan White, Macy Shultz and Taylor Beitz are all playing professionally abroad.
From the first moment Christy Smith was drafted as the first professional women’s basketball player from Arkansas for the WNBA, women athletes have continued to make deep inroads in the WNBA and NWSL. These pro women athletes, and the ones who follow in their footsteps, are building a legacy of pro women athletes from Arkansas to be proud of.
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