Megan Rapinoe (Photo by Erica McCaulley)

Seattle Reign midfielder Megan Rapinoe was prevented from engaging in a second National Anthem protest by Washington Spirit during a match at Maryland SoccerPlex on Wednesday, according to WTOP.

Rapinoe chose to kneel on Sunday during Seattle Reign’s match against the Chicago Red Stars in support of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick has refused to stand during the National Anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequality.

Washington Spirit chose to play the anthem while the teams were still in the locker room on Wednesday to make sure Rapinoe could not protest and upset the crowd.

“We decided to play the anthem in our stadium ahead of schedule rather than subject our fans and friends to the disrespect we feel such an act would represent,” Washington Spirit said in a statement. “We understand this may be seen as an extraordinary step, but believe it was the best option to avoid taking focus away from the game on such an important night for our franchise.”

“To willingly allow anyone to hijack this tradition that means so much to millions of Americans and so many of our own fans for any cause would effectively be just as disrespectful as doing it ourselves,” Washington Spirit continued.

Washington Post spoke with Rapinoe about the incident and Rapinoe says she is “saddened by it.”

“It was incredibly distasteful, four days before one of the worst tragedies in our country, to say I tried to hijack this event,” Rapinoe told Washington Post.