Under a new ownership group, Seattle Reign is preparing to kick off the club’s 2025 National Women’s Soccer League season. It will be both the club’s and league’s 13th seasons. After a frustrating 2024 season, the Reign are ready to put their stamp on this new era under local ownership that includes the Seattle Sounders and Carlyle Group.
“You’re going to hear a lot about it being a new era for Reign,” said Reign chief business officer Maya Mendoza-Exstrom in a press conference last week. “It’s not about dissociating from the legacy and all of the change that has happened, but it’s about really cementing an aspiration of where we want to be – and we want to be a leader in global women’s football. We want to be a top five club in the world, and that starts by making sure that we are winning on and off the pitch in our league.”
Here’s what you need to know to be ready for the 2025 Reign season:
When do the Reign start?
The Reign kick off the NWSL regular season on Saturday, March 15 at Lumen Field. The home match against Gotham FC will air on ION at 7 p.m. PT. ION is an over-the-air network available in 123 million homes. In addition to being on cable and antenna channels, you can find ION on YouTube TV and on free streaming apps like Tubi, Pluto TV, and Roku.
- The NWSL launched a media partnership last year that puts games on several different TV channels and streaming platforms.
- The Reign will be on ION five times, Prime Video three times, twice on CBSSN, once on CBS, and the remainder on NWSL+, the league's free streaming platform.
- Most of the games on NWSL+ also simulcast on Paramount+.
- Check the Reign's schedule page to see how to watch each match.
- There is no radio broadcast.
- Sync your calendar!
How did the Reign do last year?
There is no sugar-coating it. The 2024 season was really disappointing. The Reign finished 13th out of 14 teams with a 6-15-5 record. It was a rough fall for a team used to winning matches. The Reign played in the NWSL Championship match in 2014 and 2015, advanced to the semifinals every year since 2018, and again made it to the NWSL Championship in 2023 — falling 2-1 to Gotham.
What happened last season?
It wasn't just one thing. There are a few reasons for the poor season. The Reign had significant roster turnover from 2023 to 2024, with Megan Rapinoe retiring and U.S. Women’s National Team players Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnett heading to Gotham in free agency. The Reign also lost some key players to the NWSL expansion draft.
The Reign, previously owned by Olympique Lyonnais in France, were also up for sale for more than a year (April 2023-June 2024), causing a lot of uncertainty in the offseason and early part of the season. A lot of NWSL teams have struggled during ownership changes. There was even a chance the Reign would leave Seattle as part of the sale. That made building for the long-term and signing players more difficult — although the Reign still made offseason moves — and it also had to be in everyone’s mind, especially when the results didn't go their way.
Here’s what Reign General Manager Lesle Gallimore said recently about the uncertainty when the team was up for sale:
It was hard. It was. I’m not talking about personally, just for me. It was difficult in my role, but it was difficult for everyone. Difficult for the players, difficult for the coaching staff, difficult for the support staff. And there was no way around it. It was just not an easy place to be.
They also dealt with injuries to several important players at different points in the season, limiting their ability to have a consistent lineup. The Reign were officially sold to the Sounders and Carlyle Group in mid-June, and the club saw an initial bump in their performances, but they dealt with absences and injuries late in the year and couldn’t complete a late push for the playoffs.
Susie Rantz
The Reign finally have new owners. How is this new partnership with the Sounders progressing?
While still new, by all accounts things are going great so far. The new ownership group has already helped the Reign add another assistant coach and a full-time video analyst, and grow their medical and performance staff. The two clubs are now sharing resources and staff positions, with a current focus on growing their marketing, fan engagement, and community outreach. For the Reign, that started this week with a visit to Bow Lake Elementary School in SeaTac where every student got invited to the Reign’s home opener. There are several Reign billboards around town as well.
The Reign still have their own chief business officer (Mendoza-Exstrom), general manager (Lesle Gallimore), and standalone communications, coaching, and technical staff, but they are getting additional resources to sell tickets and make matchdays more successful. The Sounders and Reign launched a co-branded app that lets fans choose their default experience. Reign head coach Laura Harvey has also joined the Sounders in the technical booth at a few Sounders home games to understand how they operate and add her thoughts. The Sounders are undefeated when this happens. Just saying.
Reign defender Lauren Barnes, who has been with the club since the league started in 2013 and has the most appearances and minutes in the NWSL, said that the new owners have been so much more present at training—asking the players and coaches what they need and building a lot of trust.
“The most exciting thing that I’ve seen is just passion and actual physical bodies here. I think that visibility is probably the biggest thing that we haven’t seen in a long time. Seeing them here and how passionate they are, and truly making change, is just irreplaceable right now and something that definitely the club needs to see. And I think more so it’s for the group, so they feel valued and feel seen and are able to invest in each other.”
Susie Rantz
Harvey said that this offseason and preseason felt “massively different.” She noted how excited she is to create a stable environment where all the players need to think about is what they do on the field. In a recent joint press conference with the Sounders, Harvey also added that the Reign haven’t felt like an afterthought.
“We legitimately get treated like equals, and that’s in every capacity how we speak to each other, how we talk about the game from a coaching perspective. It’s not like I’m sitting in the room and I’m in the background and no one wants to listen to my opinion. [The Sounders] have known for a long, long time how to win games in this city, how to get fans out to games, and that’s something that we want to learn everything about so that we can push our club forward even more.”
Harvey also confirmed that she hadn’t spoken to or seen a Reign owner since 2022, when John Textor became the majority owner of Olympique Lyonnais. You can imagine how excited the committed local ownership group has made her.
Jeremiah Oshan
Will the Reign move to the Sounders training facility?
Not immediately. The Reign recently signed a long-term lease at Starfire Sports Complex, where the Sounders used to train before moving to Longacres in 2024. The club has invested in additional resources to make Starfire their new home, and for the first time the players have their own world-class training pitch, locker room, medical and strength training room, kitchen, and other resources.
Sounders and Reign majority owner Adrian Hanauer confirmed they are considering if moving the Reign to Longacres makes sense when their Starfire lease is up.
“It is something that we’ve considered, do we have enough grass? Can we create more grass? Do we have all of the infrastructure to accommodate? Is it the best solution for the Reign, because by the way, there are going to be 15 other communities that would love to house the Reign. So at the right moment, we will figure that out and figure out what the best long-term solution is.”
Will the Reign still play at Lumen Field?
Yes, after moving permanently to Lumen Field in 2022, the Reign will return to the stadium that is also home to the Sounders and Seattle Seahawks in 2025. The seating configuration looks a little different for Reign games — fans are seated in the east and south sections of the stadium. The club has done well to make the massive stadium feel intimate for Reign games, and the new front office is working hard to improve the matchday experience even more.
The Reign recently launched a team anthem with local artist Brittany Davis, which will play during the player walkouts. The Reign supporters group, the Royal Guard, has plans to lead “stand up” and “rise up” chants alongside the anthem.
Mendoza-Exstrom said the club is working to create more rituals like this that are unique to the Reign and ensure more matchday activities are available and concessions are open to fans.
“One of the things we’ve heard consistently from our fans is that, ‘Gosh, it just feels like everything is shut down on match day.’ We’re going to open things back up and we’re going to help you find the places where people are on matchday and put some more cool things there. We’re growing our partnership base in real time as well, partners that are super interested in women’s sports and women’s football and that want to be part of growing the fan experience. So a lot of conversations the team is having are: what are those right partners to grow the fan experience? There are a few of those we’re going to announce over the next couple of weeks, so you’ll start seeing some of them on matchday to help enhance that experience.”
Who did the Reign bring in this offseason?
The biggest offseason signing was Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams), the all-time leading NWSL goal-scorer and a U.S. Women’s National Team regular. In addition to scoring a lot of goals, Biyendolo, 31, is one of the best defensive pressing forwards in the world. She’s also fast and has excellent instincts in the box. However, one of the most underrated things about Biyendolo might be her experience winning trophies. Her teams have won the NWSL Shield three times, the NWSL Championship four times, and she was part of the U.S. squad that won Gold in the 2024 Olympics. She’s a proven winner.
A few examples of Lynn Biyendolo's acceleration and speed
Last year, the teams that rose to the top of the league had the speed to create opportunities in transition. The Reign were the slowest team in the league and created the fewest shots via counter attacks. Biyendolo gives them much more flexibility and can help stretch defenses in new ways.
So can Maddie Dahlien, a 20-year-old forward that helped the University of North Carolina win a national championship and the U.S. win a Bronze medal in the U-20 Women’s World Cup last fall. Dahlien is a Minnesota high school state champion in the 100, 200, and 400 meter dash. It’s hard to describe how fast she is, and she has great instincts in the press. She’s going to be a menace.
On the defensive end, the Reign signed Madison Curry as a free agent after a standout rookie season at Angel City. Starting in 20 games last year, she led Angel City in duels won (119), tackles won (45, seventh in the league), and interceptions (43, fourth in the league). Curry, 24, who can play fullback or centerback, is athletic, fast, and looks ready to slot into a starting spot on the Reign backline.
Alli Haynie
The Reign also signed 22-year-old Emily Mason, who recently completed her college career at Rutgers and has significant youth national team experience. She also can play in any spot on the backline and has speed. Mason looked comfortable in preseason playing as a right back and centerback.
Finally, veteran goalkeeper Cassie Miller joined the Reign from Gotham. The 29-year-old is a solid shot-stopper who could be a starter on many NWSL squads and will push the Reign’s current #1 goalkeeper Claudia Dickey.
“We thought as a group that we needed to get faster, more athletic, more dynamic, and we’ve done that,” said Hanauer in a joint press conference hosted by the Reign and Sounders last week.
On top of that, the Reign brought in several players during the summer transfer window in 2024 that have now had an entire preseason with the team, including Switzerland’s all-time leading goal-scorer Ana-Maria Crnogorčević, Haiti’s captain Nérilia Mondésir, and U-18 signings Jordyn Bugg and Ainsley McCammon.
When asked about what these moves will unlock for her in the attack, forward Jordyn Huitema said she can focus more on what she does in the box. “We got a lot of speed this year, which is going to change our game, obviously stretch the line a little bit more. For me, it will give me the ability to kind of just stay in the box. We're excited with the new partnerships, the new chemistries that have come about on the field, and we're excited to show everybody coming up.”
Who did the Reign lose this offseason?
The Reign parted ways with a few free agents who were out of contract after the 2024 season: forward Tziarra King, midfielders Olivia Athens, Quinn, and Nikki Stanton, and goalkeeper Maia Pérez.
Susie Rantz
Quinn and Stanton are heading to Canada to play for Vancouver Rise in the newly formed Northern Super League. Athens was a trialist with Gotham this preseason, while Pérez and King have not announced their next step yet.
Holding midfielder Quinn, who joined the Reign in 2019, was the most regular contributor of that group, but dealt with several injuries last season. King had the most starts of her career on the frontline in 2024 and finished with two goals and one assist. With Biyendolo and Dahlien joining the squad, her minutes would likely have been more limited this year.
Goalkeeper Laurel Ivory signed with the Kansas City Current in free agency and forward McKenzie Weinert, who was loaned to the Spokane Zephyr last August, joined the USL Super League team full-time after being waived by the Reign. Jaelin Howell, who the Reign acquired in August 2024, also went to Gotham in the trade that brought Biyendolo and Miller to the Reign.
Aren’t some players on loan also?
Yes, three players are on loan to other clubs at the moment.
Sofia Huerta is on loan to Lyon in France until June. The 32-year-old right back was playing some of the best soccer of her career when the loan started in September 2024. It has been Huerta's long-standing dream to play in Europe, and she felt she couldn’t say no when Lyon reached out with an opportunity to join one of the best clubs in the world. She had to leave Seattle in September due to the transfer window timeline in France. She’s played just over 600 minutes for Lyon, who are competing for the French league title and the Champions League.
Left back Lily Woodham is on loan to Crystal Palace. The 24-year-old defender lost playing time in Seattle as she adjusted to the pace of the NWSL, and she needed to get more minutes before Wales competes in the UEFA Women’s EURO tournament this summer. Woodham was initially loaned to the WSL team through January, but that was extended until the end of their season in May.
Sofia Cedeno, who was a trialist this preseason, signed with the Reign for the 2025 season but has been loaned to Brooklyn FC in the USL Super League until June. Cedeno just graduated from high school and had committed to UCLA.
What is Laura Harvey’s coaching style?
Like her counterpart Brian Schmetzer with the Sounders, Harvey is a player's coach. That means she works hard to build relationships with her players because she feels that’s the best way to get them to be their best. And it’s worked. She’s won the most games in the NWSL and has been named coach of the year three times (2014, 2015, 2021).
Harvey is also a very tactical coach who likes to be unpredictable each match, but she has some fundamentals that don’t change. Her teams have a defense-first mindset. They focus on being tough to break down and feel like their offensive chances come from this defensive shape and organization. The Reign head coach hates giving up easy goals off throw-ins when the team should be set defensively. Harvey teams also like to high press, and she demands a lot of her attacking players in the press. The Reign’s center forward covers a lot of ground trying to cut off passing lanes and lure defenses into pressing triggers.
On the offensive end, the Reign under Harvey have been a team that creates a lot of chances through wide overlapping play and crosses. While that will likely be true in 2025, they have added some new players that will allow them to create in other ways (more on that below).
“[Laura’s] a tactician,” Biyendolo said on the first day of preseason. “I love being on a team where you’re challenged in the way that you play, and not just using my natural talent, but for somebody to say, ‘Okay, Lynn, what is their back line playing? What is their midfield shape? How can we break them down in X, Y, and Z?’ And I think that Laura’s really great at that, so I’m excited to be able to just grow in my game in that sense.”
What formation do the Reign play?
The Reign typically line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, playing with two holding midfielders that are really comfortable on the ball and form triangles to combine with attacking fullbacks and wide forwards. The team often has one fullback that gets into the attack more and creates chances through crosses, while the other might drop back and combine with teammates instead of pushing high.
When defending high up the pitch, the Reign are in a 4-2-4 formation — bringing their attacking mid next to their center forward to press opposing backlines. Their goal is to cut off passing lanes into the middle third and force the team to go long, where the Reign backline is ready to pounce.
This video from Bridie O’Toole of the Busy Watching Women’s Soccer channel does a great job explaining the Reign’s formation and tactics.
Which young players are expected to contribute?
At 18 years old, Bugg looks like she’s on her way to becoming the next starting centerback for the U.S. Women’s National Team. A mix of Naomi Girma and Alana Cook, Bugg reads the game so well, doesn’t get fazed, and has demonstrated excellent vision and skill in possession. It’s not every day that an 18-year-old looks like a locked-in starter at centerback. Bugg is the real deal.
Dahlien is going to be a menace on the wing, 18-year-old Emeri Adames is an exciting left-footed crossing specialist who looks more threatening in front of the goal, and 17-year-old Ainsley McCammon should get more significant time in the holding midfield position after joining last summer.
Read more about these exciting players under 23 years old.
On top of these names, Maddie Mercado and Sam Meza are ready for more minutes in their second years, center forward Jordyn Huitema is still only 23 years old, and newcomer Curry is 24 and looks like a starter on day one along the backline.
Any players you expect to have breakout seasons?
Honestly, all of the young players listed above have a chance! In addition, after learning more about what worked best for her as a professional in her rookie season, UNC graduate Meza looks ready for more impact minutes. On loan to Dallas Trinity last year and in preseason this year, Meza has shown that she’s tenacious defensively and loves to be involved in the team’s build-up. She might not start on day one, but she’ll be an important option in rotation.
Susie Rantz
Fans also didn’t get to see enough of Mondésir after her mid-season move last year. The Haiti captain can play as an attacking midfielder, on the wing, or as a center forward. She’s a technically gifted player with great vision and combined well with Ji, Fishlock, and Biyendolo in the preseason. I think she will entertain fans and be a significant part of the Reign’s attack this year.
Who do you think will start in this lineup?
The starting lineup is a little hard to predict because the Reign have a lot of depth and a lot of players who can feature in multiple positions. If I had to guess, I’d expect Harvey to start their match on Saturday against Gotham with Claudia Dickey in goal and Shae Holmes, Phoebe McClernon, Jordyn Bugg, and Madison Curry on the backline. It looks like Angharad-James Turner is poised to start alongside Jess Fishlock and Ji So-yun in the midfield. The frontline has a lot of options, with one likely possibility being Nérilia Mondésir, Jordyn Huitema and Lynn Biyendolo.
Where Mondésir plays is a big question mark, as she's started on the wing, at center forward, and as an attacking midfielder already. But it feels like the club wants to get her on the field as much as possible this year.
This is an experienced midfield that some might call old, and people are right to question if they are the right set of players in a league that has only gotten faster and more transitional. Don’t be surprised to see Harvey try a few different combinations. Adames and Olivia van der Jagt could also slot into the frontline and midfield, respectively, and Dahlien looks ready to pester opponents from the opening whistle. Meza is prepared to prove herself as well and could fight for a starting spot in the midfield. Crnogorčević is a good option on the wing when the Reign want someone who can help keep the ball and hold and combine with teammates.
“I tend to change things week to week, but the depth that we have means that the drop-off is not going to be massive no matter what we do,” Harvey told reporters last week. “And hopefully, we can keep everyone healthy, which really means competition for places, which challenges us in training every day to make the training environment a high standard so that their reward at the end of the week is that they’re going to start or come off the bench knowing that they’ve earned it, because they’ve had to with the competition that we’ve got within the team.”
Check out this depth chart from Steve Voght to go even deeper.
Steve Voght
Are we expecting more signings?
The Reign don't have a ton of room on their roster at the moment. NWSL rosters have to be between 22-26 players. Players who are on loan or on a season-ending injury don't count against the 26-player maximum.
The Reign currently have 29 players signed, but three are on loans through the summer, and Veronica Latsko and Ryanne Brown are on the injured list. That gives them room for up to two more signings, at least until the loaned players return and Brown is activated from the injured list. The NWSL added a new short-term contract mechanism that allows teams to sign up to four salary cap-exempt players to short-term contracts that must have a minimum duration of two months.
The Reign could make another big move in the summer transfer window. When Hanauer was talking about the club’s “statement signing” of Biyendolo, he said, “I don’t suspect that’ll be the only statement signing that we make in the next bit as we try to get the team to a place where it also is competing for a championship every single year.”
How did preseason go?
It was a productive preseason for the Reign. They scored seven goals and conceded two in their four preseason games. Perhaps most importantly, the team built some real chemistry over nearly two months and enjoyed two weeks together in Southern California as they competed in the Coachella Valley Invitational.
As the Reign have shown this week with the release of their Cloak & Crown series, they sure had a lot of fun down in the sun. The vibes certainly seem great!
Before heading to California, the Reign beat the Spokane Zephyr 3-1 in a closed-door friendly, with goals from Meza, Biyendolo, and Dahlien. Biyendolo, who also assisted a goal against the Zephyr, scored the lone goal in the club’s 1-0 win over Bay FC in the Coachella Valley Invitational. Dahlien added another goal to her preseason tally against Angel City in the club’s second tournament match. The Reign gave up a late goal and drew 1-1 with the LA-based club.
Jordyn Huitema and Olivia Van der Jagt scored in a 2-0 win over the University of Washington in the club's final preseason match.
The entire roster was available for almost all of preseason training aside from a FIFA window in February. Harvey hopes that team time with the full squad will pay off.
“The team building bonding stuff that when people come in halfway through a season you just don't have the time to do has been brilliant. Obviously, we've got a lot of young players, so seeing how they can fit together or making them interact with the older ones when you're in the same place for 12 days and you have to do that has been so rewarding. We've got a lot done and we're chomping at the bit now to get going.”
It’s always hard to predict how a preseason will translate into the regular season, but the Reign’s defense looks really organized and their shots and goals were varied this preseason, which shows progress from last year.
Were there any injuries?
Unfortunately, yes. Forward Veronica Latsko tore her Achilles tendon in preseason and will be out for the 2025 season. Defender Ryanne Brown is still recovering from an ACL tear suffered last August. Her season-ending injury status carries over from last year but can be ended when she’s ready to suit up again.
Susie Rantz
How’s everyone feeling about this season?
We’re feeling like it will be better than last year, that’s for sure! The NWSL is so unpredictable, which makes the league so entertaining. The Reign seem to be in a great place as an organization, and the players have a lot more support and resources from ownership this year. On the football side, the roster has quality and depth, but we haven’t seen enough yet to know if the players can perform together and compete. The Reign always want to compete for the playoffs and trophies, and they have the talent and coaching staff to do that this year. But they still have a lot to prove. A lot of people may be writing them off after last season. Hopefully, the Reign can prove them all wrong.
