2025 NWSL Defender of the Year signs three-year deal with 2029 and 2030 club options

Washington, D.C. (02/17/2026) – The Washington Spirit and star defender Tara Rudd (née McKeown) have agreed to a new contract, the club announced today. Rudd’s new deal will go through the 2028 season, carry 2029 and 2030 club options, and include a signing bonus.

“I’m beyond excited to continue my journey with the Washington Spirit,” said Rudd. “This organization has believed in me from day one and I’m proud to represent this community and keep pushing to raise the standard and compete for championships with my teammates. D.C. has become my home and there’s no place I’d rather be. I cannot wait to continue to build on what we’ve started here and give our amazing fans a lot more to cheer for over the coming years.”

One of Washington’s most consistent players across the past three seasons, Rudd continues to be a leader with the Spirit. Following up her Iron Woman season in 2024, the fifth-year player earned her first call-ups to the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) and took home the NWSL’s Defender of the Year award in 2025. Rudd ranked in the top two among all defenders in the NWSL in interceptions in 2025 with 50 as well as top four in both blocked shots and tackle success among defenders with a minimum of 1,000 minutes.

“Tara Rudd is a Washington Spirit cornerstone,” said President of Soccer Operations Haley Carter. “The 2025 NWSL Defender of the Year and a consistent USWNT presence, she is central to everything we are building here. Her growth into one of the premier defenders in this league speaks to what she puts in every single day, and we’re proud that our environment and support system have been part of that journey. We are thrilled that Tara shares our vision for what this club can achieve, and we cannot wait to see what the next chapter looks like together.”

At the international level, Rudd has been a mainstay of the USWNT roster since earning her first call-up to the senior team following the 2024 NWSL season. The defender has appeared in ten matches for the side so far and even dished out three assists from the back line.

Originally from Newbury Park, California, Rudd attended the University of Southern California before being drafted by the Spirit with the eighth overall pick in 2021. In four seasons with the Trojans, Rudd tallied 33 goals and 28 assists in 76 appearances, earning First Team All-American honors once and First Team All-Pac-12 honors twice in the process. Rudd also earned a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team nod in 2017 and an All-Pac-12 Third Team nod in 2018.

The Spirit season kicks off in March with Spirit Fest, the team’s annual free fan event on March 8 at 2 p.m. at The Anthem in DC. Tickets are available HERE. Then on March 13 at 8 p.m., the Spirit begins its quest for a third consecutive NWSL Championship appearance when it faces Portland Thorns FC in the team’s 2026 home opener at Audi Field. Tickets are available HERE.

About The Washington Spirit

The Washington Spirit is the premier professional women’s soccer team based in Washington, D.C. and plays at Audi Field in Buzzard Point. The Spirit was founded on November 21, 2012 and is an inaugural member of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) the fastest growing sports league in the US. The club is home to some of the best players in the world who have won championships for both club and country. For more information about the Spirit, visit WashingtonSpirit.com and follow the club on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

An exhibit about nine people enslaved by George Washington must be restored at his former home in Philadelphia after President Donald Trump’s administration took it down last month, a federal judge ruled on Presidents Day, the federal holiday honoring Washington’s legacy.

The city of Philadelphia sued in January after the National Park Service removed the explanatory panels from Independence National Historical Park, the site where George and Martha Washington lived with nine of their slaves in the 1790s, when Philadelphia was briefly the nation’s capital.

The removal came in response to a Trump executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks. It directed the Interior Department to ensure those sites do not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”

U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled Monday that all materials must be restored in their original condition while a lawsuit challenging the removal’s legality plays out. She prohibited Trump officials from installing replacements that explain the history differently.

Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, began her written order with a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984” and compared the Trump administration to the book’s totalitarian regime called the Ministry of Truth, which revised historical records to align with its own narrative.

“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”

She had warned Justice Department lawyers during a January hearing that they were making “dangerous” and “horrifying” statements when they said Trump officials can choose which parts of U.S. history to display at National Park Service sites.

The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling, which came while government offices were closed for the federal holiday.

The judge did not provide a timeline for when the exhibit must be restored. Federal officials can appeal the ruling.

The historical site is among several where the administration has quietly removed content about the history of enslaved people, LGBTQ+ people and Native Americans.

Signage that has disappeared from Grand Canyon National Park said settlers pushed Native American tribes “off their land” for the park to be established and “exploited” the landscape for mining and grazing.

Last week, a rainbow flag was taken down at the Stonewall National Monument, where bar patrons rebelled against a police raid and catalyzed the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The administration has also removed references to transgender people from its webpage about the monument, despite several trans women of color being key figures in the uprising.

The Philadelphia exhibit, created two decades ago in a partnership between the city and federal officials, included biographical details about each of the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the home, including two who escaped.

Among them was Oney Judge, who was born into slavery at the family’s plantation in Mount Vernon, Virginia, and later escaped from their Philadelphia house in 1796. Judge fled north to New Hampshire, a free state, while Washington had her declared a fugitive and published advertisements seeking her return.

Because Judge had escaped from the Philadelphia house, the park service in 2022 supported the site’s inclusion in a national network of Underground Railroad sites where they would teach about abolitionists and escaped slaves. Rufe noted that materials about Judge were among those removed, which she said “conceals crucial information linking the site to the Network to Freedom.”

Only the names of Judge and the other eight enslaved people — Austin, Paris, Hercules, Richmond, Giles, Moll and Joe, who each had a single name, and Christopher Sheels — remained engraved in a cement wall after park service employees took a crowbar to the plaques on Jan. 22.

Hercules also escaped in 1797 after he was brought to Mount Vernon, where the Washingtons had many other slaves. He reached New York City despite being declared a fugitive slave and lived under the name Hercules Posey.

Several local politicians and Black community leaders celebrated the ruling, which came while many were out rallying at the site for its restoration.

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat, said the community prevailed against an attempt by the Trump administration to “whitewash our history.”

“Philadelphians fought back, and I could not be more proud of how we stood together,” he said.