The Seacoast United Mariners will make their Women’s Premier Soccer League debut at 5 p.m. today against the Seacoast United Phantoms in Portsmouth, N.H.

The Mariners had 45 players try out for the team, which is made up entirely of women from Maine.

“I think we have a good selection of the best female players in Maine,” Coach Lenny Hurrell said.

The players’ age range is 18 to 29.

“We’ve got three or four girls who have graduated from college,” Hurrell said. “Most of them are attending college.”

Eight players will graduate from high school next month.

“This team has been put together to give the girls a high level of competition during their offseason,” Hurrell said.

The Mariners are in the North Division of the WPSL’s Northeast Atlantic Conference of the Women’s Premier Soccer League.

The top two teams in each of the NAC’s three divisions will qualify for the playoffs. After those three rounds of competition, the winner will advance to the WPSL semifinals in Orlando, Fla., at the end of July.

The North division includes Aztec, which plays its home games at North Reading, Mass.; CFC Passion, which plays at Reece Stadium at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.; New England Mutiny, which plays at East Longmeadow (Mass.,) High; Long Island Fury, which plays at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.; and the Seacoast United Phantoms, who are based in Portsmouth, N.H.

The home opener will be at 6 p.m. May 30 at the University of Southern Maine against the New England Mutiny.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:m pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH