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SANDY \u2014 Sunday night’s season finale provided Utah Royals FC a chance to celebrate the past, including the retirement of three key members of the squad’s return to the Wasatch Front three years ago.<\/p>\n
It also may have given a glimpse into the NWSL side’s future.<\/p>\n
Paige Monaghan scored her fifth goal of the season, and Mandy McGlynn made three saves to make it stand up as the Royals wrapped up the 2025 season with a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit.<\/p>\n
“The togetherness of this team was everything,” Monaghan said. “I’m just so grateful to be their teammate; it was such an honor.”<\/p>\n
Lara Prasnikar \u2014 the 27-year-old midseason addition Slovenia \u2014 delivered quickly in her debut start for the Royals, finding No. 4 in the fourth minute to set up Monaghan’s fifth goal of the season and give Utah a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
It’s the second straight match with a goal for Monaghan, who had a goal or an assist in five consecutive matches that paced the Royals’ club-record eight-match unbeaten streak midway through August and September.<\/p>\n
If there’s something to build on the Royals’ 7-13-7 season, it’s Monaghan and her career-best five goals<\/a> \u2014 as many as the previous two years combined.<\/p>\n Through the second half of the season, Utah finished with 10 results in the final 13 matches.<\/p>\n “We feel like if we can keep this momentum going, we can be a playoff contender,” Utah coach Jimmy Coenraets said.<\/p>\n “Hitting rock bottom is OK; it gives us a great foundation to end on,” he added.<\/p>\n It was also the year of Monaghan, who arrived in Utah via the now-defunct NWSL expansion draft as an occasional goal scorer \u2014 nine goals and an assist in four seasons with Sky Blue\/Gotham FC and Racing Louisville \u2014 and became a pivotal member of the Royals’ attack, a team captain and the second-leading scorer on the team.<\/p>\n What started as a season on the mend from a broken foot ended with a career year: five goals, two assists in over 1,000 minutes played across 16 matches, including 14 starts.<\/p>\n “The belief that my teammates and coaching staff had in me, that goes a long way,” Monaghan said of her campaign. “For me, I’m a repetition player; that’s what made me good in college, what helped give me experience and exposure, what led me to U23 camp and to get drafted.<\/p>\n “I’ve been craving that so long in my career, but it’s just something that lacked,” she added. “This year, the Royals made hires that helped me do what I need to do every single week to get ready for the weekends.”<\/p>\n Most of the announced crowd of 9.170 fans weren’t there for the win-loss record, too.<\/p>\n In a game that was meaningless in the 14-team NWSL standings \u2014 Washington entered Sunday afternoon locked into the No. 2 seed for the playoffs, while Utah had been eliminated from the postseason<\/a> and was stranded at No. 12 \u2014 Spirit coach Adrian Gonzalez started two of the state’s natives in midfielder Heather Stainbrook and attacker Courtney Brown.<\/p>\n Brown had more than 100 friends and family on hand to see the former Fremont High and Utah midfielder’s 15th match of the season, which she started before a halftime substitution.<\/p>\n Stainbrook, the former Alta High star who was Utah Valley’s all-time goal scorer when she graduated in 2023, went the distance for the Spirit.<\/p>\n The Royals, too, had their own celebrations to attend \u2014 their own flowers to hand out. Imani Dorsey, who came to the newly relaunched club as a free agent following the 2023 season, played the final match of her seven-year career.<\/p>\n The sixth player signed in Utah’s relaunched history made her first appearance since Sept. 6 in a second-half sub.<\/p>\n But the biggest ovation came for Claudia Zornoza, the 35-year-old Spaniard who played the final match in her 17-year career that included stops with Real Madrid and the European Champions League prior to her final two seasons in the NWSL.<\/p>\n