Rose Lavelle will be joining the Washington Spirit for their 2018 season after being selected first in Tuesday’s Dispersal Draft (photo credit: J. Alexander Dolan)

Of all the ways that the Washington Spirit would have liked to pick up Rose Lavelle a draft of former Boston Breakers is probably at the bottom.  But the club made the most of their opportunity on Tuesday by taking the United States Women’s National Team midfielder with the first overall pick in the NWSL Dispersal Draft.

Lavelle, 22, made eight starts in 10 appearances for the Breakers. Although Lavelle was effective in brief moments with the Breakers last season (she was named the NWSL Player of the Month in April after scoring twice) injuries hampered her rookie campaign with the club. A hamstring injury in June while playing for the United States Women’s National Team sidelined her for most of the remainder of the season for both club and country. Lavelle was named Jill Ellis’ most recent USWNT roster but she did not feature in their 5-1 win over Denmark. She has made seven appearances for the senior side, scoring twice.

With Lavelle the Spirit now have four players with USWNT experience on their roster (Mallory Pugh, Andi Sullivan, and Taylor Smith). In the midfield Lavelle generally plays on the right side which should help open up opportunities for Pugh and Francisca Ordega inside. What will be interesting to see is how quickly she meshes with Smith who also has a tendency to go from a defensive posture to an attacking one as a right-back.

The club also picked up defender Elizabeth Wenger (Round 2, Pick 8) and forward Tiffany Weimer (Round 3, Pick 2). Wenger was actually picked by the Breakers in the second round of this year’s NWSL Draft while Weimer is entering her eleventh professional season. She should be familiar to those who have followed women’s soccer in the DMV as she previously featured for the Washington Freedom in 2006 and the Washington Spirit in 2014-2015. With the Breakers last season she made 17 appearances.

Tuesday’s draft is a result of the NWSL’s decision to fold the Breakers, a club whose history dates back to 2001 and the Women’s United Soccer Association. In a statement released to the public this week Breakers Managing Partner Michael Stoller said, “Discussions with an active buyer who had signed a letter of intent were ongoing since November of 2017. Unfortunately, due to certain factors that process was halted on short notice. Since that point a number of potential buyers were spoken with, but nothing could be completed within the short timeline.” On Monday the league announced that the Breakers roster would be divided up among the nine remaining teams via a draft. A weighted lottery was used to determine the draft order.

Initially the Spirit were given the second overall pick. However, the club made a trade with Sky Blue FC to move up one spot. In exchange for the first overall pick the Spirit sent Sky Blue the second pick, one of their two first round picks in the 2019 NWSL Draft, and a conditional second round pick in that same draft.