{"id":48206,"date":"2023-10-21T12:37:05","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T16:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=48206"},"modified":"2023-10-21T12:37:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T16:37:05","slug":"washington-spirit-add-college-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/10\/21\/washington-spirit-add-college-players\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Spirit Add Five College Players After Season Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Washington Spirit have not had the best of seasons. Their difficulties culminated in a 1-0 defeat from the North Carolina Courage at Audi Field, forcing them to miss out on the NWSL playoffs. The game also saw a red card handed to their star player and US National team member, Trinity Rodman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But where there are hardships, there is almost always room for improvement. The 2023 NWSL decision day recently took place and is the pinnacle of a female college soccer player\u2019s career. Indeed the future looks bright for the DC-based side as five high performing players were added to the Washington Spirit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Washington Spirit Add Five College Players to the Organization<\/strong><\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to your new home \u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\udc99 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/V1IPAYqtvb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/V1IPAYqtvb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WashSpirit\/status\/1613712817428860929?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 13, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Nicole Douglas (Arizona State University)\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">England-born Nicole Douglas was selected 26th overall in the NWSL draft to play for the Washington Spirit. Douglas remains Arizona State\u2019s leading goal scorer having broken a record of 50 goals that lasted 20 years. Douglas left Arizona State with 60 goals. Internationally, she has represented the English women\u2019s national team at the U17 and U19 level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Lyza Bosselmann (Gonzaga University)\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arizona native, Lyza Bosselmann was another one of the crucial picks made by the Washington Spirit. In 2021 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonspirit.com\/team-member\/lyza-bosselmann\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the goalkeeper had <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">63 saves, only letting 19 goals in. The same year, Bosselmann had the fourth best goals against average in program history at 1.05.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Riley Tanner (University of Alabama)\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Riley Tanner is being called up to the Panama National team for the sixth time \ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\udde6<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/shJHBDa7zv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/shJHBDa7zv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WashSpirit\/status\/1714769732379791744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 18, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tanner was selected in the third round of the 2023 NWSL draft. Originally from Michigan, Tanner plays internationally for the Panamanian national team. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonspirit.com\/team-member\/riley-tanner\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Alabama<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, she scored the winning goal against Missouri, Mississippi State and Kentucky in 2021. In 2022, she was ranked 34th nationally for assists, having participated in 8 over the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Lena Silano (Long Beach State University)\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/10\/14\/washington-spirit-vs-north-carolina-courage\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Preview: Washington Spirit Vs. North Carolina Courage On Sunday<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Silano made quite an impact in her career at her alma mater, Long Beach State University. In 2022, she was named the Big West Offensive Player of the Year . The same year, a bicycle kick goal scored by Silano in the later part of a match went viral, with clips of the moment picked up by outlets such as Sports Illustrated and ESPN.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Civana Kuhlmann (University of Colorado, Boulder)\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/10\/15\/north-carolina-courage-crush-washington-spirit\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">North Carolina Courage Crush Washington Spirit\u2019s Playoff Hopes<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Civana Kuhlmann could be one of DC\u2019s most significant drafts. She <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonspirit.com\/team-member\/civana-kuhlmann\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has represented<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the United States Women\u2019s National Team (USWNT) at the U14, U15, U17, U18 and U20 levels. Given this trajectory, Kuhlmann could be seen on the US senior team in the near future. She was most notably the only American player to score a hat trick at the U17 World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the season hasn&#8217;t really brought the wins the Washington Spirit have been hoping for, its attendance at matches has been increasing. Their October 15 game against the North Carolina Courage saw an audience turnout of 15,479. With the departure of their former coach Mark Parsons and the addition of five players from the NWSL draft, next season could bring great things for D.C.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo Credit: Ray Acevedo-USA TODAY Sports, of a Nicole Douglas Headshot, on July 8, 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Spirit have not had the best of seasons. Their difficulties culminated in a 1-0 defeat from the North Carolina Courage at Audi Field, forcing them to miss out on the NWSL playoffs. The game also saw a red card handed to their star player and US National team member, Trinity Rodman.\u00a0 But where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4952,"featured_media":48216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[353,1710,2910],"tags":[2438,27653,2205,27652,2741,4264],"class_list":["post-48206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nwsl","category-uswnt","category-washington-spirit","tag-audi-field","tag-nicole-douglas","tag-nwsl-college-draft","tag-nwsl-decision-day","tag-nwsl-draft","tag-trinity-rodman"],"modified_by":"Raheem Bashir, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}