{"id":871923,"date":"2026-10-05T19:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871923\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T19:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T19:18:09","slug":"washington-spirit-tops-houston-dash-3-2-behind-trinity-rodman-assist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871923\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Spirit Tops Houston Dash 3-2 Behind Trinity Rodman Assist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trinity Rodman and the Washington Spirit <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonspirit.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/04\/recap-spirit-takes-important-three-points-in-houston-with-15th-win-of-season\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/washingtonspirit.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/04\/recap-spirit-takes-important-three-points-in-houston-with-15th-win-of-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">shook off<\/a> a persistent Houston Dash side on Saturday, scoring a 3-2 road win that all but locks Washington into a NWSL <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/nwsl-espn-power-rankings-washington-spirit-matchweek-20\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/nwsl-espn-power-rankings-washington-spirit-matchweek-20\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">playoff position<\/a>. The result pushes the Spirit to 49 points in the NWSL standings, nine clear of the playoff line with just three games left.<\/p>\n<p>Spirit Pull Ahead Early, Dash Claw Back in Weekend Thriller<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rodman <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/trinity-rodman-washington-spirit-nwsl-return\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/trinity-rodman-washington-spirit-nwsl-return\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">fueled<\/a> the Spirit&#8217;s second-half surge, threading the assist on <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/washington-spirit-win-streak-sofia-cantore-record-brace-nwsl-results\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/washington-spirit-win-streak-sofia-cantore-record-brace-nwsl-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Sofia Cantore&#8217;s<\/a> go-ahead goal in the 51st minute. Cantore&#8217;s finish marked her 10th career NWSL regular season goal. Before that, defender Tara Rudd put Washington ahead off an Esme Morgan corner in the 11th minute.<\/p>\n<p> &#13;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/chicago-stars-vs-houston-dash-nwsl-scores\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"38639\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Miljana Ivanovi\u0107<\/a> kept Houston in the match, equalizing twice \u2014 first before halftime, then again in the 59th minute \u2014 becoming the first Serbian player to score in NWSL history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But substitute Clara Luvanga answered in the 84th minute to clinch all three points for the visitors. Luvanga, the NWSL&#8217;s first Tanzanian player, has now scored in just her second appearance for the Spirit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The loss drops Houston to 8-13-6, officially ending the Dash&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/houston-dash-vs-north-carolina-courage-nwsl-scores\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/houston-dash-vs-north-carolina-courage-nwsl-scores\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">postseason hopes<\/a>. The Spirit, meanwhile, will look to firm up their playoffs berth when they face top-ranked Gotham on October 17th at 12:30 PM ET on CBS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trinity Rodman and the Washington Spirit shook off a persistent Houston Dash side on Saturday, scoring a 3-2&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[242485,367352,132469,99,10506,46183,434],"class_list":["post-871923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-2026-nwsl-season","tag-2026-nwsl-standings","tag-houston-dash","tag-sports","tag-trinity-rodman","tag-washington-spirit","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}