The Spokane Zephyr made an impressive charge to playoff contention. Now their season comes down to the last game.

The USL Super League’s postseason doesn’t officially begin until June 7, but the Spokane Zephyr already feel like they are in the playoffs.

They have felt that way since February.

“Honestly, I think this entire spring season has been playoff mentality,” said midfielder McKenzie Weinert, who was on loan from the Seattle Reign (NWSL) before becoming an official member of the roster in January.

Spokane ended the first half of the season in December with a 2-6-6 record.

A midseason break provided the players and coaches an opportunity to make the necessary adjustments to a now-winning recipe.

Team captain and midfielder Taylor Aylmer felt grateful for the pause in the season because it allowed the team to mentally reset.

“I think the break in between the fall and the spring was really needed and great for our team, and I think when we came back in the spring, it was just a mentality change,” Aylmer said.

Zephyr head coach Jo Johnson explained how she, her coaching staff, and players took advantage of the two months off.

“We scaled back all the layers in the spring, and we just went, ‘What can we control?’ We started with our values as a team, who we want to be as people, and then … in-process goals of not giving up, defending set pieces, scoring 1.5 goals a game and controlling certain parts … of each half within the game.

“When we stripped all that down and just focused on us, then the results came.”

The Zephyr have exuded grit and determination all year.

It’s how Weinert, the Super League’s April player of the month, likes to play – gritty and determined to do what it takes for her team to get the result, preferably a win. Even if that means falling on the ground and muddying her uniform more than any other player on the pitch.

There isn’t an official statistic for how many times a player falls, but it certainly seems like she leads the league – at least, the team – in that category.

Weinert has logged a productive 1,880 minutes, registering three goals, one assist, 23 interceptions and 120 duels won.

It wasn’t until the former Oregon State and Washington product scored all her goals and contributed her lone assist in April that Spokane had its best month, winning four of five and losing only to first-place Carolina.

The Zephyr opened May with a 2-0 home shutout over Lexington, which earned them a top-four position for the first time.

Since then, they climbed out of a 2-0 hole, scoring twice in the final 20 minutes for a 2-2 draw with Brooklyn on May 10, and topped DC Power 2-1 three days later.

They have defended their fourth-place standing with one more regular-season match this weekend.

‘You lose when you quit learning’

Experience is the best teacher.

While many of the individual Zephyr players and coaches joined a newborn team with soccer backgrounds of their own, they were still unfamiliar with one another.

There are bound to be learning curves for everybody.

Luckily for the Zephyr, school opened early. They quickly learned about themselves, each other, and how to rise to the occasion, even when it was hard to stand up.

“It’s like the iceberg, right?” Johnson said. “You see that motivational picture in a classroom and you see all the lessons, like against Lexington that we didn’t finish out games. Well, now we see that in training every day. The players are managing set pieces, not being able to finish some chances that we’ve left out there … all those different lessons that were tough lessons to learn in the fall really have set us up in the spring to be successful.”

The Zephyr also mastered the ability to compartmentalize and battle what is directly in front of them.

“That’s been our mantra,” Johnson said. “The only thing that’s important in this locker room is the next 90 minutes … You can see that against Brooklyn. We go down two. We wouldn’t have been able to come back from that in the fall because we were so focused on, ‘What does this mean?’ But we’re like, ‘No, we got to finish out this 90 minutes’… and then we’ve shut that off, and now we’re focused on DC.

“You always hear these quotes … just focus on the process, just on things you can control. I really feel like this team has leaned into that.”

The early-season woes also hardened Spokane’s mental and physical resolve.

“People have been digging deep, left and right,” forward Emina Ekic said. “They’re playing sick and no one knows, or someone has an injured hamstring … someone’s nauseous from the flights.

“They’ve given everything they have and more.”

While losing as much as they did at the beginning was wearisome, it fortified an unbreakable bond between players on and off the field.

“It’s been a grind, I feel like physically, mentally and emotionally,” Ekic said. “But I feel like us almost crumbling or not doing so well in the fall really brought us together.

“It’s not all positive all the time, and I think it’s … what’s helped us. We’ve gotten on each other … we’ve held each other accountable … we raised each other to a higher standard because we all want to win and we’re tired of losing.

“We all know it comes from a good place, and honestly, what we’ve accomplished so far would have been really hard to do if we didn’t genuinely enjoy being around each other … It’s a good locker room and a good group of girls, so it’s easy from that aspect.”

Weinert echoed Ekic’s sentiments.

“This is a great group of women,” she said. “I love this team so much. Everyone has their own unique personalities, and I think we just mesh really well together.”

Even at the helm, Johnson and her staff were also students. The head coach explained how she and her staff used the break to reflect on the fall to ensure clarity in the team’s identity for the second half of the season.

“We, as a staff went back and were like, ‘OK, who do we actually want to be? Are they clear on who we want to be?’

“Now that stuff’s clear … then it’s player led.”

Johnson said players often come to her during games when they commit errors.

“There’s times where I don’t even say anything, and we got players that come in like, ‘That was my bad’,” she said.

“You only lose if you quit learning … I appreciate them leaning into those lessons and being able to go on the other side. .. and help us get results.”

Applying the knowledge

In an aggressive postseason battle, two of four available bids are reserved for Carolina and Tampa Bay.

The other two spots will be decided this weekend, with three teams, including Spokane, Fort Lauderdale and fifth-ranked Dallas – which sits one point behind those two – in contention.

Spokane could still make the playoffs with a loss or a tie this weekend, if Dallas loses to Carolina on Saturday.

But the Zephyr would prefer to not leave it up to anyone else.

They will apply the knowledge and grit they have acquired this year and attempt to earn a win over Fort Lauderdale (11-8-8), a team that Spokane has yet to overcome, on Saturday at ONE Spokane Stadium at 6 p.m. Both teams have 41 points.

Johnson will look toward her front line that is ranked fourth in the league in goals scored with 36. It includes Ekic, the team leader in goals (10) and assists (six); Ally Cook, who has scored five goals since joining the team in January; and Weinert.

Behind the attackers, is a stalwart defense led by Sarah Clark, who has 141 clearances, the most on the roster and second most in the league. Clark also has 35 interceptions. Beside her is Sydney Cummings, the team’s leader in blocks (18).

Standing in front of goal will be a steady barrier, and the league leader in saves, Hope Hisey.

“I think the mentality for us is we focus on ourselves and these next 90 minutes and everything else is just outside noise and what we can do to control our destiny” Aylmer said.

“It’s just those fine little details of controlling the controllables.”