The first time WPLL Fight attacker Kylie Ohlmiller met lacrosse legend Katrina Dowd she was 15 years old and a 10th-grader at Islip High School in New York. She was a lacrosse nerd even back then, never going three sentences without bringing up lacrosse. She and her friends decided to take a trip to Stony Brook University -- where Ohlmiller would eventually end up playing NCAA lacrosse for four years -- to watch Northwestern vs. Maryland in the NCAA women's lacrosse final four.

Dowd, who is known for her celebrated women's lacrosse career at Northwestern, had graduated by then. But Ohlmiller heard from friends that she sometimes came to cheer on her team. After walking around and scouring every inch of the stadium, she spotted Dowd in the Northwestern section, sporting a purple and white Wildcats jersey. Working up her courage, she walked up to Dowd.

"I am a big fan. I've worshipped your game for so long," she said to her softly. Dowd smiled and posed for a photo and signed autographs for the wide-eyed 15-year-old fan.

Fast-forward eight years. Ohlmiller was in her car driving from Team USA's training camp in Maryland to Virginia for a WPLL Fight game the next day. In her passenger seat, laughing at a random joke Ohlmiller cracked, was Dowd, her Fight teammate.

They were joking around, sharing stories about how they got there, and in the middle of it all, Ohlmiller remembered suddenly sitting upright in her seat.

"I remember thinking, 'Is that Katrina Dowd in my front seat?'" she said. "If you'd told that 15-year-old girl that one day she'd be playing with her idol, goofing around in her car, she'd have laughed in your face."

Dowd, 31, is a three-time NCAA champion and led all players in scoring at the 2013 World Cup for Team USA before she decided to retire and coach college lacrosse. She is the associate head coach at the University of North Carolina. Like her, some of the most prolific players in women's lacrosse history -- the Brave's Dana Dobbie, the Fire's Hannah Nielsen and the Command's Kristin Igoe -- played at a time when there was no professional lacrosse after college, no social media to improve visibility of the sport and no financial stability in the sport. They all retired and went on to do other great things. Today, they're back as players competing in the Women's Professional Lacrosse League and are playing some of the best lacrosse they've ever played.

Their skills will be on hand in the 2019 Women's Professional Lacrosse League championship starting Friday at Yale's Reese Stadium in New Haven, Connecticut. The No. 1 seed Fight will face the No. 4 seed Command at 4:30 p.m. ET, while the Brave will take on the Pride at 8 p.m., both on ESPN3. The winners will advance to play in the 2019 WPLL championship game on Sunday at the U.S. Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Maryland, at 2 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Kylie Ohlmiller was a sophomore in high school when she met Katrina Dowd, a senior at Northwestern at the time. Now, the two are teammates. Courtesy of Kylie Ohlmiller

Dobbie, 34, a former Canadian national team captain who won a bronze medal at the World Cup in 2009 and silver medals in 2013 and 2017, sat on her living room couch in Maryland at 8 p.m. ET on Aug. 23, 2017. She had Lax Sports Network, the online lacrosse news network, open on her laptop browser. It was the night of the first WPLL draft, and she was nervous to see if her name would make the list.

The associate head coach at Loyola University, she loved working with the next generation of talented players. But there was a part of her that still wanted to play. That had always been the dream: to play women's pro lacrosse.

A few minutes later, her name popped up next to WPLL Brave. She was picked as one of their attackers.

"I thought I'd feel relief, but all I felt was this wave of excitement," she said, knowing she would be part of the first set of athletes to play pro women's lacrosse.

For the longest time, her parents had watched her play lacrosse on a boys' team in Fergus, Ontario. She was the only girl in the entire town -- and the district -- to play the sport. That meant she had her own dressing room. That also meant she had to tolerate the boys on her team poking fun at her every single day because they "didn't want to play with a girl."

Twenty years ago, that was what girls had to endure to play lacrosse. Today, her parents watch their daughter play in a professional women's lacrosse league. The sport -- and Dobbie -- has come a long way.

"One day it's the biggest part of your life, and the next day it disappears. It was the weirdest feeling," said Nielsen, a World Cup champion, four-time NCAA champion and two-time player of the year from Australia.

"And now I am so excited to just keep a stick in my hand," she said about playing for WPLL Fire.

The sport has changed since they played in college. It has gotten faster, the introduction of possession clock limiting the time each player can hold the ball. It's a lot more physical and fast-paced. And these veterans have loved the challenge. It was all about using the fundamentals they learned at school and about playing smarter.

Dowd and Nielsen are considered veterans on their teams, athletes whose wealth of knowledge has helped up-and-coming players understand the game.

"Just being able to sit next to Katrina and pick her brain is huge -- talking about stick work and the fundamentals, but also talking about life and finding a good balance. That's helped me immensely," Ohlmiller said.

Their coaching skills have come in handy during their pro season, the transition seamless, they said.

"You go from talking about lacrosse to implementing those decisions on the field as a player," Dowd said. "I am putting all the pieces together perfectly right now. ... It took me a while, but it's so exciting that I'm here.

Added Nielsen: "You learn a lot as a coach, and I am a much smarter player now than I was as a 21-year-old relying just on what the coach was telling you. ... It's really cool to now be a coach and playing and no longer relying on my physical strength but what I've learned as a player. I am a smarter and more selfless player now."

And it has showed in their game this season. Dowd leads the WPLL Fight with 12 points (seven goals and five assists), Nielsen leads the league in points with 13 (seven goals and six assists), and Dobbie is tied for the league lead in goals with eight.

At 34 years old, Dana Dobbie may be one of the league's oldest players, but she is also tied for the most goals in the league. Chris Thompkins

Dobbie distinctly remembered walking out of the field after a match this month and being swarmed by fans, particularly young girls. The autograph line had gotten steadily longer as the second season of WPLL progressed. On that day, it hit her: This was her purpose now, to be able to show girls around the world that they can be professional lacrosse players.

They played at a time when there was no social media or immediate gratification for their hard work. Young girls didn't see "best goals of the day" on Twitter. They didn't have visibility the way they do now. And they're going all out with it.

"It's the second season of WPLL and we already have autograph lines for 30 minutes after each game. Seeing the growth of the game's following is the highlight of my day," Dobbie said. "Seeing a 9-year-old girl's eyes light up when she sees a sweet stickwork in a pro match is everything."

Young girls have to see it to believe that there is a path, a future there for them, Dowd said. There are very few people on this earth that have made it with no framework or reference points, so visibility is everything.

"I was the girl that saw this legend [Dowd] and wanted to continue playing the sport," Ohlmiller said. "I want to be that person that pushes a young girl to pick up a sport and play the game. That's how we keep the circle alive."

They've come a long way, but they all still have one common dream to work toward: seeing lacrosse at the Olympics.

There's something unequivocally unifying about seeing the best American lacrosse players representing the country at the biggest sporting event of the world, and that will change the way people view lacrosse forever, Dowd noted.

"I probably won't be playing at the Olympics, but it will be an emotional -- the most emotional day in lacrosse, probably, to see a bunch of women with sticks walking out on to the field to play lacrosse for their country at the Olympics," Dowd said.

"Knowing that when a study is done about pro women's lacrosse in 10 years we will be the pioneers makes it all worth it."