The first 45 minutes of play decidedly belonged to the North Carolina Courage. Two goals allowed by a tough Washington Spirit defense in the first 26 minutes looked like it would set the tone for the match. The Courage’s Debinha buried a rebound off the glove of goaltender Aubrey Kingsbury in the fifth minute of action and Taylor Smith squeaked through the Washington back line to put a shot under the reach of Kingsbury roughly midway through the first half.
Despite the humbling first half, the Spirit came out of the locker room and controlled the remainder of the match much like the team did last week against Gotham. In the 58th minute, Trinity Rodman rifled a shot high into the back of the net off a perfect feed from team captain Andi Sullivan for the reigning NWSL Rookie of the Year’s first goal of 2022. Washington kept its foot on the pedal as Julia Roddar fed Ashley Hatch a ball out in front of the net that she tucked away in the bottom left corner with a header just nine minutes later to knot the game at two goals apiece.
1495 Sports is proud to bring the following Washington Spirit Post Match Press Conference from 3/30. From after the team’s 2-2 tie with the North Carolina Courage and featuring thoughts from Head Coach Kris Ward, Aubrey Kingsbury and Trinity Rodman:
In the 71st minute, Ashley Sanchez was inches from a highlight reel goal as her falling down line drive shot from the top of the box was tipped just over the top right corner of the net by Courage goaltender Katelyn Rowland. The Spirit defense also tightened up, shutting the Courage out in the second half while allowing just one shot on goal.
Washington ran out of time once again as full time was called after a furious Spirit attacking attempt to take a late lead. The Spirit will play their final home Challenge Cup match this coming Sunday, April 3 as they take on the Orlando Pride at Audi Field at 4:00 p.m. EST.
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