Dash win NWSL Challenge Cup

SANDY, Utah — As the underdog Houston Dash celebrated winning the NWSL Challenge Cup title, forward

Rachel Daly was asked if she could define the team’s identity after the month-long tournament. “Winners,” the Dash co-captain simply said.

Sophie Schmidt scored on an early penalty kick, and Shea Groom added a goal in stoppage time to give Houston the trophy with a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Red Stars on Sunday. The tournament was the National Women’s Soccer League’s reboot after the regular season was shut down by the coronavirus outbreak. Houston, in its seventh year in the league, had never previously made the playoffs. “Grit and determination and courage, I could use all of those cliché words, but they actually mean something within our team,” Daly said. “After every game I say, ‘Nothing breaks our circle, and if anything breaks our circle, we’ll lose.’ Today nothing broke our circle.” The Red Stars went to the NWSL championship game last season but were routed 4-0 by the North Carolina Courage. Houston was aggressive from the start.

Kristie Mewis was on the run when she was fouled by Kayla Sharples for a Dash penalty kick, which Schmidt nailed in the fifth minute for the tournament’s first PK in regulation. The Red Stars nearly drew even in the 15th minute, but Savannah McCaskill’s header off a rebound hit the post. McCaskill had another chance from distance in the 67th minute, but Houston goalkeeper

Jane Campbell tipped it up and over the crossbar. The Dash took a hit in the 29th minute when Mewis had to come out of the game with a hamstring injury, and she sobbed as she was subbed out. The NWSL was the first professional team sport league to return in the United States. Eight of the league’s nine teams have been sequestered in Utah for the duration of the tournament, which started June 27. The league’s ninth team, the Orlando Pride, withdrew shortly before the start because of positive COVID-19 tests, but there were no positive tests in the so-called bubble in Utah for the duration of the event. The Red Stars were the tournament’s sixth seed going into the knockout round. The Dash were the upstart underdogs of the Challenge Cup after finishing seventh in the NWSL last season.

BASKETBALL

› BRADENTON, Fla. — Monique Billings scored 30 points — her most as a WNBA player — and grabbed 13 rebounds, and rookie Chennedy Carter added 18 points with eight assists as the Atlanta Dream beat the Dallas Wings 105-95 on Sunday in the season opener for both teams. Betnijah Laney had a career-best 19 points, Elizabeth Williams added 17 and Shekinna Stricklen 16 — including four 3-pointers — for Atlanta. Allisha Gray and

Arike Ogunbowale led Dallas with 19 points apiece, and Isabella Harrison scored 18 and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Satou Sabally, selected No. 2 overall by the Wings in April’s draft, had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. Atlanta shot 54.8% and scored its most points since a 109-100 win over Las Vegas on Aug. 9, 2018. Billings made the first of two free throws to give the Dream their biggest lead of the game at 93-81 with 4:02 left. Ogunbowale scored six points in a 14-4 run over the next 2 1/2 minutes to pull the Wings within two, but Williams answered with a layup an Dallas got no closer.