It's commonly understood that freshmen need some time to adjust to college soccer. The speed of play increases, the general talent level goes up, and players become bigger, faster and stronger.
For these 11 players, those obstacles proved easy to overcome.
New England Soccer Journal has named its All-Rookie Team for the 2018 season, highlighting a group of newcomers who left their mark on the region's Division 3 landscape. The team is organized in a 4-3-3 formation and, for the sake of transparency, those who narrowly missed the cut are also included.
One strong season doesn't guarantee long-term success, but all signs point to the below rookies blossoming into household names in D3 circles.