June 28, 2024 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)
Washington Spirit News Release
Washington, D.C. – The Washington Spirit will face the North Carolina Courage on Saturday night in the first matchup of the year between the sides. The match begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. and will be broadcast nationally on ION. Fans can also listen to the team’s first-ever local radio broadcast on WashingtonSpirit.com or the ESPN 630 AM website or app.
The Spirit
The Spirit enters Saturday’s Pride Night matchup against the North Carolina Courage coming off an intensely physical and gritty road victory against Gotham FC. The Spirit won that match, 2-0, marking the second two-goal shutout victory over Gotham this year and securing the regular season sweep. With an NWSL-leading ten wins on the season, the Spirit is the third team in NWSL history to win 10 of its first 14 matches of a regular season (Seattle – 11 in 2014, North Carolina – 10 in 2018). The Spirit sits third on the table at 31 points through 14 matches, though prior to this year, only Seattle in 2014 and North Carolina in 2018 had recorded 30 or more points at this stage of a season. The win also marked the first time in club history that the Spirit won three straight road matches.
In the match, several Spirit players logged impressive performances. Notably, rookie Courtney Brown found the back of the net for the first time in her professional career. Brown’s goal was assisted by fellow rookie Croix Bethune. It was Bethune’s ninth assist on the season, moving her to a tie for second-most in a single season in NWSL history, joining Lauren Holiday (2013) and Nahomi Kawasumi (2017). One more assist and Bethune will tie Tobin Heath for the most in a season by an NWSL player. Finally, Aubrey Kingsbury recorded her 33rd regular season career clean sheet and made a crucial penalty kick stop, putting her in third place in NWSL history with seven regular season PK saves.
Washington and North Carolina are set to meet for the first time this season. Last year, the two sides met four times (two regular season, two Challenge Cup) with the Spirit dropping three of those matches (1-3-0). In the Spirit’s win over North Carolina last April, Trinity Rodman and Ashley Hatch both scored. The two forwards are the Spirit’s leading scorers in the all-time series against North Carolina with four apiece. Should the Spirit win this weekend, the team will tie with North Carolina for both the fourth…