Reign media day moments: Elyse Bennett and Phallon Tullis-Joyce
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – On the first ever OL Reign media day in club history, five groups of players spoke with the media in attendance over the course of the day to discuss their off-season's, the season ahead, and several other topics. Those groups came to speak with the media between different engagements that they were participating in for the league, which we will see throughout the course of the season. The fourth group that day was Reign starting goalkeeper in Phallon Tullis-Joyce and offseason trade acquisition Elyse Bennett.
A return home to the state of Washington for a former Cougar
Bennett spent five seasons at Washington State University, playing in the state that the Reign call home, and earning some solid accolades in the process. The former second team all-American's play got her selected seventh overall by the Kansas City Current, and her play during her rookie season was impressive despite not necessarily lighting up the stat sheet. The Reign acquired her in a trade around the draft while also acquiring a pick they flipped to trade up so that they could select Shae Holmes. Considering that the club got Bennett and that pick for only allocation money, it could turn out to be a huge success for the Reign as the club needed a finisher up top after struggling in that department last season.
“Yeah, it’s been honestly a pretty smooth transition, I’d say. I feel like everyone is super welcoming, and the environment is great both on and off the field, so I have no complaints, and I’m just really blessed to be here. ”
“I think they can look forward to just seeing me continue to fight no matter what minute it is? I feel like every minute that I’m out on the field, I give it my all, and I feel like you can see the tenacity in me. I feel like my biggest goal in being here and just anywhere where I play is to just put my best foot forward and do anything that I can to help the team succeed. So, you’ll see me out there just doing what I do best and giving it my all every minute I’m out there. ”
Forward Elyse Bennett in the preseason match against the Portland Thorns (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Getting acclimated with the new system
The Reign’s press has been a focal part of how the club plays since Laura Harvey returned to coach the club with Farid Benstiti’s departure. When executed correctly, the press has worked out extremely well for the Reign and was a big part of the club winning the NWSL Shield this past season. While most of the club has returned to execute that press yet again, a few of the new players like Bennett will have to learn it and help master it so that the Reign can get back to that Shield winning form and go even further. And, depending on just how well she’s able to work within the press, Bennett may be able to thrive for a club that needed finishing up top desperately for most of last season.
“Yeah, I feel like we kind of pressed in a similar fashion or were taught to press that way in Kansas City as well. I feel like we kind of played a similar way in college too, so I’ve been used to a high press, and I’m used to kind of going forward and making transition a priority, so I feel like it hasn’t been too difficult for me to learn and pick up here. But it’s great to be on this team and to be in this environment. ”
Elyse Bennett at the Reign’s February 10th training (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Embracing her role and newfound fame, Phallon looks forward to year two
Starting goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce burst onto the scene for the club in 2022, amazing fans with her draw dropping saves in net while also educating her followers online with her knowledge as a Marine Biologist. After only appearing in a relief appearance of starter at the time Sarah Bouhaddi, many were unsure what the plan was for the Reign in net following the end of Bouhaddi’s loan from OL Feminin. Tullis-Joyce had the job from day one and never once surrendered it, becoming a star in net and delighting fans when she wasn’t on the pitch as well. Heading into her second year, the keeper is looking to continue to hold down the fort and further educate the public on the planet’s marine life.
“I was super excited about last season. Being able to be the starter for OL Reign, that was a massive opportunity. Such a great honor to be a part of this club and just building off of what we started and what we achieved last season, that’s really just our goal for this next season, is just to do even more, especially for myself. ”
“Definitely, I was really fortunate that, OL let me come and join them, especially using their facilities in their training environment. Their goalkeeper trainer, too, was great. He was with me before every training session for 30 minutes. Just working on distribution, working on little things like having a different perspective on things that I could improve, and the girls were great too. They were hilarious, so I just had a great time learning from them and building those things for the season.”
“I’m really grateful for our fan base and how welcoming they were, especially for how unique of a video series that I released that everyone should know was literally done from screen recording PowerPoints. I was up pretty late, don’t tell Coach Harvey, but sometimes I probably should have settled down a bit. But I did want to do that for our fans and have something fun just for people to appreciate and love the ocean. I think that’s just something so special about the area that we’re in, and that was something I wanted to bring and share with our fans, and I’m just so happy that they were really receptive to that and more to come following on that.”
Phallon Tullis-Joyce before the clubs preseason match against the Portland Thorns (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Not the biggest fan of “The Little Mermaid?”
With her Marine Biology background, it seems fair that Phallon’s teammates are going to engage with her on different subjects in that field and perhaps even bring forward their own questions about the ocean and its inhabitants. One of those questions came from teammate and midfielder Nikki Stanton, who asked Tullis-Joyce about the existence of mermaids. Upon discovery by the media about the question, it became a very popular debate and sparked some great fun within the club and its fan base. Thus, a question about the “International Mermaid Museum” out in Aberdeen, Washington was raised at media day.
“I have not done that yet, but that was really funny, especially I think it was against Angel City that we had a game where somebody had a sign right behind me saying, ‘Mermaids are real.’ Honestly, that was great banter. I thought that was hysterical. ”
“I think I’m going to go ahead and stick with Phallon and say, mermaids are not, in fact, real.”
Phallon Tullis-Joyce catches a ball in the air against the Kansas City Current on October 23rd, 2022 (Photo by Liz Wolter)
Preseason push towards the 2023 season
With the changing of how the NWSL schedule is set up, the preseason is a bit different moving forward with some more time to prepare for the upcoming campaign when compared to previous years. In addition to taking part in the Portland preseason tournament held at Providence Park, the Reign had a friendly set up with Club America as part of their partnership with the club and with OL Feminin. Against a good club that had already begun it’s season, the Reign were able to get in a quality match before their regular season campaign began.
“I personally think that we performed really well. I’m thankful to Club America for coming here, especially being like I think they were seven games into their season, and they put up a great match for us and the fans. That was incredible to be a part of. And I’m really proud of our team and what we put forward for that game. I just think it’s just a great foundation that we’ve set for the rest of the season.”
“I would agree. I feel like that game was a good starting spot for us, a good benchmark to move forward from. I feel like it gave us good pictures on some things that we’ll see in the league and maybe some things that we won’t. But I feel like it gave us a good opportunity to see where we’re at and move forward and grow from there.”
Continuing to secure fortress Lumen
Since last year when the Reign first began calling Lumen Field home, finally returning to Seattle after a few years at Cheney Stadium, the excitement has been brewing for the club to return to play. As the year went on, the Reign broke record after record for attendance on the road to securing their third NWSL Shield in franchise history. With continued marketing, the original three members of the club returning for another year, and heightened excitement, the Reign are looking to continue to break records and grow the game of women’s soccer in Seattle.
“I think for me, obviously, I was here on a different perspective, and I wasn’t the home team, but I felt like the environment in our semifinal game against Reign last year when I was with Kansas City was great. I feel like the fan base here is going to be more than welcoming, and they already have been since I’ve been traded. So, I’m looking forward to being out here and I kind of got a taste of what the fans were looking like at the Sounders game last night, so hopefully we can get more and more of those fans to come out to our games too. But I’m excited to play in front of this crowd.”
“Yeah, exactly. Just building off of that, just amazing how many fans we were able to get for our semifinal game. Our fans really showed out last season and you can just feel that here at Lumen. So, really looking forward to that for the next season coming up.”