From TikTok to tarot, Orlando Pride defenders Toni Pressley, Ali Riley get creative off pitch

After a year of being teammates, Orlando Pride defenders Ali Riley and Toni Pressley haven’t played a minute of a match together. Yet despite the hurdles of the last year, off the pitch they’ve become a creative duo.

From team tarot card readings to vegan recipes and viral TikToks, Pressley and Riley take joy in creating content together.

“It’s nice to have something other than soccer to dive into at times,” Pressley said. “For me, especially, I kind of get sucked into soccer — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — but to have something else to take my mind away or just have fun with, especially with a really good friend like Ali, has been really awesome.”

Both players described their friendship as instant. Riley was already a longtime friend and teammate of Marta — Pressley’s fiancé — after the two played together for five combined seasons.

Pressley and Riley quickly bonded over their love for vegan cooking. Both players had their own cooking endeavors. Riley runs a blog and Instagram account for vegan and health tips, and Pressley was already working on a vegan cookbook.

The two began collaborating together on recipes, then on a cookbook project. The pair are now planning several cooking-based projects together for the future.

Pressley said they’ve already landed on several dishes for the book — a vegan version of a viral feta pasta recipe, desserts like Funfetti cake and Texas sheet cake and a curry heart of palm cake that imitates crab cake.

Marta chimed in from the other room of their home during Pressley’s media call, naming their vegan taco recipe as her favorite.

“It was just a natural thing that kind of happened,” Pressley said. “We already had all these recipes, why not kind of just come together and see what we can do? And it’s just taken off from there.”

The pandemic helped Pressley and Riley find a shared love of making TikTok videos choreographed to various songs, such as Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone.”

Although both players are active on TikTok, Riley named herself the main editor behind their shared videos. She’s been creating vlogs and videos since college, taking joy from the minute details that go into making a clean finished product.

“I love making content. I love editing,” Riley said. “I feel like I’m one of the few who like sit there and edit. ... That video in particular, I had to cut those little [videos], it was like a half second to make sure it was on that beat, but I love a challenge.”

The pair’s shared interests regularly lead to new hobbies. In February, they went to Avalon — a store downtown that sells “All Things Rare and Magickal“ — to buy crystals and came away with a deck of tarot cards. Pressley had always been interested in tarot, so she and Riley dove into learning how to read cards together.

After a few days of practice, they began reading for their teammates at the Pride facility before training sessions.

“We’ve kind of made like a little duo,” Pressley said. “We read people’s cards together and we have a system and it works pretty well. And I feel like they’ve been pretty accurate so far, which is kind of strange. So if you ever want your tarot read, you know who to call.”

Whether it’s cooking or creating vlogs for the club, both players have an interest in turning content creation into a more sizable career someday. Riley noted that getting behind and in front of the camera helps them prepare for the future.

But for Riley and Pressley, creating content comes back to their love for their club — and Pride fans.

“We haven’t been able to engage and interact with fans in person for a year,” Riley said. “I haven’t been able to meet any fans yet in person. So for me to kind of be able to show my personality a little bit and my teammates as well, it’s just so fun for me. ... Of course we want to do well on the field and we want to make our community, the club [and] Orlando proud, but I think it’s also cool to allow people to get to know us.”

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Julia Poe at jpoe@orlandosentinel.com.