Boyds, Md. (Feb. 27, 2019) – The Washington Spirit has waived defender Whitney Church.

Church spent her first four professional seasons with the Spirit since being drafted No. 30 overall in the NWSL College Draft out of Penn State University in 2015.

As a rookie in 2015, Church played in 16 games, totaling 1364 minutes for the Spirit. In 2016, she played in 11 regular season games, starting seven, and played every minute of the Spirit’s semifinal match and the NWSL Championship.

During her third season with the Spirit in 2017, she appeared in 22 games, totaling 1,980 minutes of playing time on the back line. She was named the NWSL Player of the Week for Week 20 of the season, after scoring the first goal of her NWSL career to help rally the Spirit to a 2-1 road victory over Sky Blue FC.

In 2018, she played in 22-of-24 regular season games for Washington, accumulating 1,898 minutes of playing time. She finished second on the team with 103 defensive clearances.