The theme for the Houston Dash this season is “Prove It” and so far they seem to be doing just that.
Just two seasons ago, the Dash finished last in the National Women's Soccer League standings. It looked like more of the same at the start of last season, until the team appeared as though they were starting to click under coach Fabrice Gautrat.
It wasn't quite enough to get Houston into the playoffs, but it was something to build on this season. So far the Dash are fifth in the standings at 3-1-0 coming off an extended international break. Their nine points through the first four games are a team record.
Midfielder Kiki Van Zanten leads the league with four goals this season. It is the fastest a Dash player has collected four goals in team history.
Houston has nine total goals, second only to Angel City with 10. It is a team record for most goals Houston has scored through its first four games.
“This season, I feel like it’s a culmination of everything that we’ve been putting together for the last two years. The Dash has had a tumultuous decade," defender Avery Patterson said. "I mean, I think there was a turnover of nine or so coaches in 10 years. So I mean, to say that we have consistency and we have a foundation to build on, I think that’s what’s being reflected in the games that we’re playing now and the performances we’re putting together.”
The Dash also have a club record seven-game unbeaten streak at home dating back to last season heading into Saturday’s home match against the North Carolina Courage.
Houston has made the playoffs just once, in 2022. That same season, coach James Clarkson was suspended amid an investigation by the NWSL and its players union into allegations of misconduct across the league. Clarkson denied any wrongdoing and later filed a lawsuit against the team.
The team has struggled with attendance at Shell Energy Stadium and owner Ted Segal has launched unsuccessful attempts to sell the team.
However, a few key personnel moves have signaled a culture shift. Before the 2025 season, the Dash brought in Angela Hucles Mangano as president of women’s soccer and Gautrat as head coach.
This year Houston added former U.S. women's national team interim coach Twila Kilgore as the team’s technical director.
Goalkeeper Jane Campbell has seen it all. She's spent her whole career with the Dash after joining the team in 2017 out of Stanford. In 2023, Houston allowed just 18 goals and Campbell was named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year.
Campbell said it was a learning experience when the Dash fell to 12th in the standings last season before the summer break. But the team started to gel in the second half. One sign was the team's 1-0 victory at home over Kansas City that snapped a 17-game Current unbeaten streak.
“I think last year was really good for us, because we realized what communication didn’t work, why we weren’t on the same page, and then we also realized what communication did work, and how to get on the same page quite fast, especially when we did hit speed bumps in the second half,” Campbell told The Associated Press in an interview just before the start of the season.
Campbell is one of the team's steadying veterans, along with Danielle Colaprico and Makenzy Robbe.
While it's still early, Gautrat said the team's fast start has been based on a combination of things, ranging from the takeaways from last season to the buy-in of both the veterans and newcomers like Kate Faasse and Linda Ullmark.
“I think you had a blend of some excellent people, competitors, players, with also a new breed of freshness and talent, very teachable, and really wanting the same thing,” Gautrat said. “So I think it's been like this perfect mesh.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Houston Dash midfielder Kiki van Zanten (12) runs during an NWSL soccer match against the Angel City FC, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong, File)
FILE - Houston Dash goalkeeper Jane Campbell (1) gestures during an NWSL soccer match against the Angel City FC, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong, File)
ENID, Okla. (AP) — Raeann Hunt scrambled to her cellar as a tornado bore down on her Oklahoma community.
“It is headed right for us,” she recalled thinking, as she peeked outside, unable to contain her curiosity.
Huddled inside the dark 8-by-8 foot (2.44-by-2.44 meters) concrete shelter with her husband, brother-in-law, son and a neighbor, she heard roaring, metal slapping on the door and glass breaking.
Afterward, they emerged unscathed, but found the windows smashed out of the one-story brick home in Enid and the roof badly damaged.
The scene was repeated late Thursday across the city of about 50,000 people about 85 miles north of Oklahoma City. At least 40 homes were damaged, and light damage to a nearby Air Force base was reported. The tornado that hit the city was on the ground for between 30 and 40 minutes, said Rick Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Despite throwing buildings off their foundations, no one was killed in the storm, and only minor injuries were reported.
“People around here have a plan,” Hunt explained, noting that residents of this tornado-alley state are trained to either take shelter in a room near the center of their home or get underground.
Basements aren’t common in Oklahoma because of the red clay soil and elevated water tables that make it difficult and expensive to install them, but many homes — like Hunt's — have storm cellars or safe rooms with reinforced concrete walls where people can take cover.
People here also know to flip on the TV and set up weather alerts on their phones — particularly in the springtime, when the risk of violent twisters is highest.
“Especially in Oklahoma, we have great meteorologists,” said Justin Hunt of Enid, who described the storm's aftermath as a “disaster.”
Commercial buildings just south of the city were turned into a pile of twisted metal, splintered wood and insulation by powerful winds that pushed the buildings completely off the concrete foundations.
“Please join me in praying for the Enid community, which has been severely impacted by tonight’s tornado,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt posted on social media.
The tornado knocked down utility poles and left power lines wrapped with huge chunks of debris. A home had part of its metal roof torn off and trees were left stripped of bark and limbs. At another home, a section of one wall had peeled away to reveal the interior of the home with some furniture still in place.
Police and fire departments and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol conducted multiple home searches, rescuing some trapped residents, Enid Mayor David Mason said Friday.
“Supplies have poured in already,” Mason posted online. “This is who Enid is in challenging moments — we continue to show up for one another.”
Dave Lamerton of Enid spent Friday morning salvaging what was left of his son Joseph’s woodworking shop just south of the city, along with some family members and a group of volunteers who traveled from Kansas to help with cleanup.
“The tornado just swung right through here and just hit us directly,” Lamerton said, pointing to a giant mess of splintered wood beams, furniture, debris and heavy machinery that was pushed into a massive pile at the edge of the building’s foundation. “We’ve got stuff on the property we can’t even find.”
One striking image from Thursday’s storms shows a tornado in the Enid area with a dark clouds of debris extending in V-shape on either side. That is typical of higher-end tornadoes, according to Mark Fox, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s office in Norman.
It has such a violent motion as winds pick up dirt, debris and things like parts of people’s houses.
“If you start seeing things like this, you know it’s a violent tornado,” he said.
Neighboring counties also reported some flooded roads and barn damage. The National Weather Service was sending two crews out Friday to do damage surveys related to six potential tornadoes in the Enid and Braman areas of north-central Oklahoma, meteorologist John Pike said.
Fences and some equipment were knocked down at nearby Vance Air Force Base, about 80 miles (129 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City. The base was closed until further notice “due to ongoing power and water restoration efforts,” it posted online Friday.
Everyone assigned to the base has been accounted for and no injuries were reported, 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs Chief Ashley D. Hendricks said in an email Friday.
More storms are possible through Friday night across south-central and southeast Oklahoma, the weather service said. Strong to severe thunderstorms are expected to develop Saturday, including in the Enid area.
It was a stormy night in other states, too. In Kearney, Missouri, north of Kansas City, officials reported downed trees, debris blocking roadways and damage to homes on Thursday night after storms passed through the area. Officials said in a social media post that no injuries had been reported. Crews worked to make roads passable by early Friday and were expected to continue cleanup efforts during the day.
—-
Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland, contributed to this report.
Lightning lights up the sky behind a television tower as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Buildings lie in shreds in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
A man clears debris at a commercial woodworking shop in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
A view of a damaged home in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
A view of a damaged home in Enid, Okla., Friday, April 24, 2026, in the aftermath of a tornado that barreled through Oklahoma Thursday. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
A man walks in the rain as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
People walk in the rain as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Lightning is reflected in the glass exterior of an apartment building as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Lightning lights up the sky behind an AT&T building as a thunderstorm moves through the area Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
In this image taken from video from KWTV/KOTV, a tornado crosses a highway in Enid, Okla., Thursday, April 23, 2026. (KWTV/KOTV via AP)
