Baltimore- Goals, goals, goals. If the Washington Spirit had an offseason shopping list it would appear that finding the back of the net was at the top, medium, and bottom of the list. The club added to their attacking arsenal on Friday, picking up Florida State forward Cheyna Williams with the seventh overall pick in the 2016 NWSL Draft.
Williams scored 10 goals and tallied 7 assists for the Seminoles in 2015 and helped lead the side to their fifth consecutive College Cup appearance. Since coming to Florida State in 2014 (she spent her previous two seasons with Vanderbilt) she has accrued an impressive array of awards and accolades. She was selected to the All-ACC First-Team, ACC All-Tournament Team, and the College Cup All-Tournament Team in 2015 and was an NSCAA All-American Third Team and ACC All-Tournament Team in 2014. As a sophomore with Vanderbilt in 2013 she was named to the All-SEC First-Team.
With Williams and newly signed forward Kasey Stengel the Spirit have picked two new attacking pieces to complement league MVP Crystal Dunn. Although the Spirit scored 31 goals during the 2015 campaign 15 of those goals came from Dunn. Given that Dunn and possibly Stengel will both be missing time this season due to United States Women’s National Team duties Williams be given her chances although she will likely start off the season as a super-sub.
In the second round, the Spirit added Arizona State forward Kali Farquharson. Farquharson finished her Sun Devil career as the club’s second all-time leading scorer with 44 goals and was a First-Team All -Pac 12 member in 2014 and 2015.
With the final pick in the second round the Spirit selected Texas Tech midfielder Alli Murphy. Murphy set a single-season school record with 12 assists in 2014 for the Red Raiders. She helped lead the club to the Sweet 16 in the 2014 Women’s College Cup, scoring the game-winning goal in their second round match against Auburn.
The Spirit have two additional picks in the fourth round of the NWSL. We will update this page as those picks come in.
[UPDATE 1:54PM EST]
In the fourth round the Spirit selected goalkeeper Madalynn Schiffel of the University of San Francisco and defender Kara Wilson of Duke University and the Washington Spirit Reserves/
