One does not simply walk into Spokane and beat the Seattle Reign.

In fact, opponents had yet to take a point at One Spokane Stadium before the Denver Summit battled to a 0-0 draw on Saturday night.

▶️ Watch the latest episode of Denver Summit FC: Pitchside from the Denver7 Sports team in the video player below.

Denver Summit FC: Pitchside | Episode Four: Riding The Mile High Wave

Earning that road point is no small feat in the NWSL, but in a match where Denver once again looked like the brighter side there’s room to be both disappointed and realistic.

“In a crazy way I quite like the fact that we let this one get away,” said Summit FC head coach Nick Cushing after the final whistle. “It gives us the chance to see how we react to that. We should win the game, we know that.”

“[Failing to score] is always frustrating,” said Summit FC defender Megan Reid. “But when teams have good structures, you tip your hat. They made opportunities more difficult, but I don’t think it should have stopped us from putting one in the back of the net.”

While Denver dominated most of the second half, they failed to capitalize on the chances they created. Cushing says learning how to be more lethal in front of net is all part of the learning process for this expansion club.

“I said we’d be an attacking team and we came here and took the majority of the game to Seattle,” said Cushing. “Yea we need to create bigger chances and be more ruthless, I said to the team that if we were in this place in September I think I’d be frustrated. But for us, it’s about going through the process, and I think we gave them the most difficult game they’ve had this season.”

The draw sees Denver sitting on six points through the first five matches of their inaugural season, unbeaten in their last four games and in 9th place in the NWSL table.

A week after playing in front of a league-record 63,004 fans at Empower Field the vibe at One Spokane Stadium was distinctly different.

I’m not saying you could hear a pin drop, but on the Ion broadcast you had no problem hearing Cushing’s shouting tactical advice from the touch line.

The first major chances of the match came at the expense of Denver’s defense – courtesy of Maddie Mercado. Seattle midfielder and English international Jess Fishlock released Mercado in the 10th minute, forcing yet another save from Summit goalkeeper Abby Smith.

“It’s expected from her, [Smith is] unreal,” said Summit FC defender Carson Pickett. “She’s an unbelievable keeper. We know that when it comes down to a couple chances she’s going to have our back. We’re all one unit and we hopefully help each other.”

Smith, who was named to the NWSL Best XI for the month of March, was drawn off her line about a minute later to temper yet another creative run by Mercado.

The momentum shifted in the 18th minute as captain Janine Sonis got involved in the attack and took Denver’s first shot, and a few minutes later forcing Seattle goalkeeper Claudia Dickey to make her first save of the evening.

As the Summit turned up the pressure, the Reign mounted a nearly-lethal counterattack. Emeri Adames broke free at the halfway line, but Smith once again was equal to the task.

Like prizefighters continuing to feel out their opponent, Denver jabbed back courtesy of a curling shot from Melissa Kössler that rattled off the crossbar.

Despite Denver out-shooting Seattle 8-7, along with a late flurry from the likes of Yazmeen Ryan and Tash Flint, we’d hit halftime deadlocked in a 0-0 draw.

The second half opened up with numbers committed forward by the Reign, but the Summit weathered Seattle’s pressure like a mountain in a thunderstorm.

Ryan continued to provide sparks of brilliance on offense – darting runs, decisive movement, and eventually a shot on goal. But in the 60th minute Cushing went to his bench hoping to find a little more punch.

US international winger Ayo Oke and Canadian international midfielder Emma Regan took the field to replace rookies Yuna McCormack and Devin Lynch.

Oke’s impact was immediate and obvious, her pace and precision led to a great chance for Carson Pickett in the middle of the 16-yard box; however, as it was for most of this match, the final product left a bit to be desired.

The Summit continued to impose their will in the 73rd minute as Ryan played a picture-perfect diagonal cross to Sonis, who made a brilliant run to Dickey’s back post. Sonis connected beautifully with a header – which was not a common sight for the Summit through most of this match – but Dickey’s positioning was on point, and Sonis’ shot was driven harmlessly into the Seattle keeper’s chest.

Denver dominated most of the second half, but they were unable to come up with that all important goal. In the end, the Summit will head into the international break on a streak of roughly 200 straight scoreless minutes.

“These are critical points, points on the road,” said Cushing. “What we don’t want to do is look back at these games thinking those were two points dropped that could have got us [to our goal]. We’ll make sure that the team is prepared for when the [players come back from international break].”

The next time we see them in action will be at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on April 25th, when they take on the San Diego Wave.

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DENVER — A Colorado community activist was convicted of doxxing a Denver police commander last week in a first-of-its-kind case that has fueled debate about whether the state’s online privacy laws violate free speech rights.

A jury in Denver County Court found Regan Benson, 53, guilty of sharing the personal information of a protected person online after she repeated a Denver police commander’s home address during a livestreamed protest and suggested her followers should meet up there so they could “have a pig roast party,” according to an arrest affidavit.

State law prohibits a person from sharing the personal information of police officers online if the person knows that doing so “poses an imminent and serious threat” to the safety of officers or their families. The law protecting police officers’ information has been on the books for more than two decades, but drew renewed attention in 2021 and 2022 when legislators expanded the doxxing protections to other professions, including health care workers, animal control officers and code enforcement officers.

Benson appears to be the first person in the state convicted under the anti-doxxing statute, said Jamie Hubbard, her attorney. She and Benson believe the criminal prosecution was unconstitutional retaliation for her criticism of the Denver Police Department, including a lawsuit she had filed in June.

The misdemeanor conviction can be punished with up to a year in jail.

Read the full story from our media partners at the Denver Post here.

This Sisyphean season of injuries for the Nuggets has at least one more setback in store.

Peyton Watson is considered week-to-week with a right hamstring strain after he left Wednesday’s game at Utah feeling tight, coach David Adelman said.

And so after their long, slow climb back to full health, the Nuggets will climb again. They had about a week to catch their breath with their opening-day rotation available.

Adelman didn’t rule out the possibility that Watson could return before the end of the regular season, but Denver has only five games remaining, followed by a few days of rest and preparation for a first-round playoff series that was clinched this week.

“I mean, the hope would be playing next week,” Adelman said after practice Friday. “… I think it’s being careful with him. At the same time, competitively, wanting him back as soon as he feels comfortable, and also that week leading into the playoffs, you hope he’s able to go through the preparation of what it is to play in a Game 1. So we’ll see how it goes.”

Watson initially injured his right hamstring Feb. 4 in New York, causing him to miss six weeks. After slow-playing the final stages of his recovery process to be extra cautious, he returned on March 22 and played in five games before the setback. He said on Tuesday that he felt ready to increase his minutes from 20. But he also suggested that he hadn’t felt like himself in Denver’s last two games.

“This is the longest I’ve ever been out, so I thought once I got over the hump of being back that I was gonna stop having problems with my body,” Watson said before the team flew to Utah. “The first game I came back, I felt amazing. The second game I came back, I felt amazing. But the third and fourth game, I’m like, ah, I kind of feel like how I did some of those days during the rehab process. So I think just, I saw the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The 23-year-old wing is averaging 14.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game this season on 49.1% shooting from the field and a 41.1% clip from 3-point range. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer.

“So unfortunate,” Adelman said. “He’s had such a good year. I feel for him as a person. Just not having the opportunity to come back and play right now is completely unfair to somebody who’s put the work in.”

Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. also left the game in Utah — a knee injury in his case — but he was able to participate in practice. The Nuggets are hopeful he’ll be available Saturday afternoon when they host the Spurs, but he’ll be evaluated again before the game to be officially cleared. Spencer Jones (hamstring tightness) didn’t practice Friday and remains day-to-day, Adelman said.

Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama missed Thursday’s win over the Clippers for maintenance reasons, but if he plays in Denver, it’ll be the first time this season the Nuggets will face him. In a new ESPN poll of prospective MVP voters released Friday, Wembanyama had surpassed Denver’s Nikola Jokic for second place in the running. The Nuggets will face San Antonio twice in their last five games.