Looking to surge past the Spirit: previewing the Reign vs the Spirit, May 23rd, 2025

Seattle Reign FC
Written By Charles Hamaker

By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA - Our Seattle Reign FC are back in their home of Lumen Field tonight for a clash against the club just ahead of them in the league table, as they play host to the Washington Spirit tonight. The Reign will continue to push up the league table, as they’ve worked their way to the sixth spot in the NWSL standings, and if they want to continue their own climb then they’ll get a great chance to do so against a Spirit club that is playing well and getting healthier. Seattle should get a little bit healthier in this one, something we’ll touch on in the injury update segment of this preview, but not so much that those players will get the full 90 and make that much of an impact on tonight’s match. Here is our preview of Spirit at Reign, featuring key players to watch, key storylines to note, how to tune in, who landed on the availability report, and much more.

Spirit looking to keep soaring

Washington has been hit by the injury bug early into the 2025 season, and while that hasn’t necessarily improved outright, the Spirit will likely be getting some key players back for this contest against our Reign on a Friday night. Coming into this contest riding a two-match unbeaten streak, Washington is expected to get Hal Hershfelt, Casey Krueger, and Croix Bethune back for this battle against Seattle. Getting Croix Bethune back is a notable addition, but the reigning rookie and midfielder of the year still has a minutes restriction so the damage she can cause is hypothetically limited. Krueger and Hershfelt also have minute restrictions, but having these players back available means that the Spirit will have more edge on their offensive and defensive units. This is another good challenge for the Reign, and if Seattle is able to succeed with this test against Washington then they can jump them in the NWSL table and climb as high as third depending on other league wide results.

Reign continuing to creep up the table

It hasn’t been flashy or super easy for our Reign through their first nine matches of the 2025 season, but Seattle has lost just once across their last five games as they certainly look at though they’re very determined to put a frustrating and disappointing 2024 campaign behind them. Getting Jess Fishlock and Nérilia Mondésir back from injury following several weeks on the availability report, both with leg ailments that head coach Laura Harvey called “muscular issues”, should hopefully help the Reign create a more dynamic attack against this Spirit club, something Seattle has been searching for in recent games, but the group overall must be better about both creating chances to score and putting them away if they truly want to show growth over last years disastrous season. Claudia Dickey has played herself into a call up with the USWNT and a new contract extension, as her ability in goal and the strength of the defensive play in front of her has been the driving force for Seattle just as historically good clubs under Laura Harvey have been.

Head-to-head notes

In all time head-to-head competition between the Reign and Spirit, Seattle holds the advantage with a 14-10-8 record against Washington including a 10-4-5 record when playing at home. In terms of the scoring, the Reign have the all-time head-to-head goals advantage with 47 compared to the Spirit’s 36. These two clubs last met almost a year ago to the day, as Seattle suffered a 3-2 defeat to Washington on the road on May 24th, 2024. The last time the Reign hosted the Spirit was in their 2024 home opener, which Seattle won by a final score of 1-0, with that lone goal coming on a penalty scored by Bethany Balcer. Club captain, defender, and original Lu Barnes leads Seattle in matches played across this head-to-head history, with midfielder and original Jess Fishlock leading the Reign’s head-to-head goal number with seven scored against the Spirit all-time.

Promotional night: Healthcare Heroes Night

The deadline to purchase a ticket to get in on this promotion has passed, but this match is helping to feature healthcare heroes in the area. As part of that celebration, the Reign offered a Reign FC crossbody bag with each ticket purchased through a special promotional link. If you want to be in the loop for these cool promotional and theme nights that the Reign are hosting throughout the course of the 2025 season, you’ll want to click here for the link that showcases all of them for the year. The next upcoming night that Seattle is celebrating will be the clubs “Pride Night” on August 1st against Angel City as those who purchase a ticket through a special link will get an exclusive Reign FC Pride baseball cap in addition to their ticket to the match itself.

Lineup and injury notes

Things got a bit interesting seeing the clubs lineup for a eleven on eleven session during Tuesday’s open media training, as the club was playing with a five back as they have for a solid chunk of the season featuring a back line of Shae Holmes, Lu Barnes, Jordyn Bugg, Phoebe McClernon, and Madison Curry. Sam Meza and Angharad James-Turner continued to hold down the midfield while a trio of Maddie Dahlien, Jordyn Huitema, and Emeri Adames featured up top in somewhat fascinating fashion. While it’s a bit odd to not see the Reign have Lynn Biyendolo with the “starters” in that session, it was just the Tuesday session and the club had a few more before tonight’s match. We imagine that Seattle won’t go with that sort of look in reality, instead going back to the traditional four player backline Meza, James-Turner, and Ji in the midfield with a forward trio of Dahlien, Biyendolo, and Huitema up top. Harvey has changed things up before in unique ways, but we’d be very surprised if she didn’t start Biyendolo and or Ji, especially considering that the latter didn’t play at all last match despite not being listed on the availability report.

In terms of injury notes, our Reign will have two new names added to the injury report. Forward Ana-Maria Crnogorčević is listed as out with a back injury, but we saw her training early with a few of Seattle technical staff members and leaving before the main training session began. Crnogorčević was largely practicing on tight passing windows and finishing coming immediately off a through ball, spending at least half an hour getting early work in before she headed back into the clubs facility at Starfire Stadium. Midfielder Maddie Mercado is a new addition to the report with an excused absence, and she did miss a match earlier this season with the same reasoning so we hope all is well with her. In case you missed it, backup goalkeeper Cassie Miller was added to the report last week with a leg injury that will keep her out “through the summer,” per head coach Laura Harvey. Jess Fishlock and Nérilia Mondésir will both be available in this match, as Harvey confirmed so very bluntly without much detail into anything such as a minutes restriction for either, but we imagine they’ll both feature off the bench for Seattle.

Club availability reports

  • Seattle

    • OUT: Ryanne Brown (SEI – knee), Ana-Maria Crnogorčević (back), Veronica Latsko (SEI – lower leg), Maddie Mercado (excused absence), Cassie Miller (leg).

    • QUESTIONABLE: None.

    • INTERNATIONAL DUTY: None.

  • Washington

    • OUT: Emma Gaines-Ramos (SEI – knee), Lyza Jessee (SEI – wrist), Paige Metayer (D45 – knee), Trinity Rodman (excused absence), Leicy Santos (knee), Ouleye Sarr (SEI – back), Andi Sullivan (maternity leave), Kate Wiesner (hip).

    • QUESTIONABLE: None.

    • INTERNATIONAL DUTY: Chloe Ricketts (USA U-20)

Key players to watch

For our Reign, I’ll pinpoint three players across three different position groups to highlight in this Friday night fight against the Spirit. You’ll want to keep an eye on Phoebe McClernon, Sam Meza, and Maddie Dahlien in this match against a dangerous Washington club. Firstly with Phoebe, the Seattle defender has played every single minute of the clubs nine matches so far on the 2025 season and it’s not as though she isn’t putting in strong performances. McClernon’s 92% tackle success rate has her tied for the second best in all of the NWSL. Against this Spirit team that loves to cross the ball in, McClernon’s defensive abilities will be needed all night long. Midfielder Sam Meza has been a fun story throughout the course of 2025, stepping up big for the club as Jess Fishlock has dealt with injury. Her loan last year has seemingly paid off well, and she’s been a crucial player for the Reign in the midfield along Angharad James-Turner. Meza currently ranks second in all of the NWSL in tackles with 36, and that’s after she didn’t really play much in the first two matches of the year. Look for her defensive ability and midfield presence tonight against the Spirit. Lastly with Dahlien, it feels like we’ve been talking about her all year, but it’s not without good reason. The University of North Carolina alum has let her shots fly and they’ve been landing on target, as 83% of her shots this year have been on target, and that mark leads the league among all players with at least five shots on target. Dahlien is in great company when it comes to those shots on target as well, as her 15 have her tied with Orlando Pride forward Barbra Banda and Gotham FC forward Esther González for the most in the NWSL.

For the Spirit, keep an eye on Ashley Hatch, Gift Monday, and Rosemonde Kouassi. Hatch, a consistent and persistent veteran for Washington, continues to find the back of the net and be a goal contribution machine. Hatch has five goals and one assist so far in eight starts on the 2025 season, as her seemingly endless motor helps her be a pressure machine against opponents, which also helps her show up well in defensive metrics. Gift Monday is a sneaky producer for the Spirit, their second leading goal scorer and just 21-years-old. She’s been a player that’s cleaned up some loose balls around net for Washington, and with how many crosses they send into the box, the Reign will need to watch for a few Spirit players on second chances but especially Hatch and Monday. Lastly to keep an eye on, Rosemonde Kouassi is a dangerous wing that has returned to the lineup following an injury to start the season and has been as dangerous early into 2025 as she was to close out the 2024 season. Kouassi has four goal contributions (One goal and three assists) across just 321 total minutes on the year, as her speed and dribbling ability make her a problem to handle along the wing (typically the right wing). Remember those crosses I mentioned that Washington likes to send into the box? Kouassi is one of the players supplying that service, and Seattle will want to try to shut her down before any of those attempts reach the box.

Key stats and storylines

  • Key stats to note

    • The Washington Spirit are undefeated (4-0-0) on the road.

    • Washington has been in some high scoring affairs throughout the course of the year, having scored 16 goals and conceded 15 goals, while Seattle has largely been a club in low event matches having eight goals and conceded seven.

  • Key storylines to note

    • How well will Seattle defend against Washington’s crosses?

      • While the Spirit have been burned on some crosses in their recent matches, they’ve largely gotten their scoring from crosses themselves in a bit of a live by, die by situation. A lot of the Washington’s goals have come from crosses, whether that’s directly or by a player cleaning up a loose ball in the box for a score. The Reign defended some crosses well against Louisville, getting wildly outnumbered in crosses for the match itself, and Seattle is going to need to defend well in the box in a repeat performance of that road match while also preventing the Spirit's wing players from having a lot of time and space, including Kouassi as we mentioned. With how low scoring Reign matches have been this season, their ability to defend those crosses very well could help decide this result.

    • Can the Reign finally break through a bit offensively?

      • It’s no secret that Seattle has lacked true offensive punch dating back to last year and somewhat into this year, although a little bit better so far on the 2025 campaign. Even in the few years before 2024, the Reign weren’t the best team at converting their chances and that held them back from being even better in Megan Rapinoe’s final few seasons. Getting back to this year, Seattle has taken the fewest shots in the league at 70 and they’re tied with the Dash for the fewest shots on target at just 28. The offensively capable players are on the roster for the Reign, but they aren’t converting or necessarily creating enough. There’s an opportunity for a sort of “break through” tonight, though, as Washington has given up nine goals over their last three matches played. Can Seattle take advantage of a Spirit team that has struggled defensively of late, or will this contest be more of the same?

    • How much will we see Fishlock and or Mondésir?

      • Harvey was coy about the involvement of her club original and a player they covet signed last year, but we have to imagine that they’ll get some decent minutes considering their ability to impact the game and how bluntly Laura confirmed that they’d be playing in this contest against the Spirit. The question of how much they’ll be featured is an intriguing one, as it’s unlikely that they’ll start but we’ll have to keep an eye on when Harvey decides to inject them into the match. Getting these two creative and intense players on the pitch at any moment is a boost to the Reign, but doing so when an opponent is tired and or worn down could be extra beneficial to Seattle.

How to tune in tonight

For those who are unable to join us at Lumen field for this match, with tickets still available by clicking here for general options or here to join the supporters section, this contest will air on Amazon Prime Video with Jason Knapp and Lori Lindsey on the call, with sideline reporter Madelyn Burke joining them. For international viewers, you can watch this match for free on NWSL+. If you’d like to be surrounded by fans of the Reign when you’re watching this match, you can always head to the official home of Circling Seattle Sports: Rough & Tumble Pub! With more than enough televisions for ALL of the sports, local brews, great food, there isn't a better place to catch a game and R&T is an especially great place to watch any Reign match considering that it’s Seattle's home to women's sports!

What’s next after this match?

Following this home match against the Washington Spirit, a contest between two clubs currently in playoff positioning, our Seattle Reign FC will begin a stretch of three consecutive road matches and a span of two months where they won’t play a home match. The month of July is completely empty for NWSL as a whole due to the international break. That stretch of three road matches before we get to the empty void of July begins with a contest against the San Diego Wave on Friday, June 6th at Snapdragon Stadium with a kickoff time of 7PM PDT that will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime Video. That match will certainly represent a tough test for the Reign, as the Wave have climbed all the way to the second spot in the NWSL table behind four wins in their past five matches and at least a point in all five. Seattle and San Diego will duke it out in a West coast clash, as both of them look to continue their respective climbs in the NWSL table. That tough contest against the Wave is followed by some “easier” competition, as Seattle will face the two teams currently occupying the bottom two spots in the table in Chicago and Utah.

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Charles Hamaker
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