diff --git a/lucene/CHANGES.txt b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
index 2e89f3bc90d..328f742f748 100644
--- a/lucene/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
@@ -153,6 +153,9 @@ Other
 * LUCENE-7666: Fix typos in lucene-join package info javadoc.
   (Tom Saleeba via Christine Poerschke)
 
+* LUCENE-7658: queryparser/xml CoreParser now implements SpanQueryBuilder interface.
+  (Daniel Collins, Christine Poerschke)
+
 ======================= Lucene 6.4.1 =======================
 
 Bug Fixes
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java
index d8aa8ef2b77..8637c4a6fcd 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.classic.QueryParser;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders.*;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 
@@ -31,7 +32,7 @@ import java.io.InputStream;
 /**
  * Assembles a QueryBuilder which uses only core Lucene Query objects
  */
-public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder {
+public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder, SpanQueryBuilder {
 
   protected String defaultField;
   protected Analyzer analyzer;
@@ -114,6 +115,11 @@ public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder {
     return getQuery(parseXML(xmlStream).getDocumentElement());
   }
 
+  // for test use
+  SpanQuery parseAsSpanQuery(InputStream xmlStream) throws ParserException {
+    return getSpanQuery(parseXML(xmlStream).getDocumentElement());
+  }
+
   public void addQueryBuilder(String nodeName, QueryBuilder builder) {
     queryFactory.addBuilder(nodeName, builder);
   }
@@ -122,6 +128,11 @@ public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder {
     spanFactory.addBuilder(nodeName, builder);
   }
 
+  public void addSpanQueryBuilder(String nodeName, SpanQueryBuilder builder) {
+    queryFactory.addBuilder(nodeName, builder);
+    spanFactory.addBuilder(nodeName, builder);
+  }
+
   static Document parseXML(InputStream pXmlFile) throws ParserException {
     DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
     DocumentBuilder db = null;
@@ -144,4 +155,9 @@ public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder {
   public Query getQuery(Element e) throws ParserException {
     return queryFactory.getQuery(e);
   }
+
+  @Override
+  public SpanQuery getSpanQuery(Element e) throws ParserException {
+    return spanFactory.getSpanQuery(e);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java
index 1906aef1e93..8f07c4a100a 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.ScoreDoc;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.TopDocs;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.util.LuceneTestCase;
 import org.junit.AfterClass;
 
@@ -116,6 +117,9 @@ public class TestCoreParser extends LuceneTestCase {
   public void testSpanTermXML() throws Exception {
     Query q = parse("SpanQuery.xml");
     dumpResults("Span Query", q, 5);
+    SpanQuery sq = parseAsSpan("SpanQuery.xml");
+    dumpResults("Span Query", sq, 5);
+    assertEquals(q, sq);
   }
 
   public void testConstantScoreQueryXML() throws Exception {
@@ -207,10 +211,21 @@ public class TestCoreParser extends LuceneTestCase {
   }
 
   protected Query parse(String xmlFileName) throws ParserException, IOException {
+    return implParse(xmlFileName, false);
+  }
+
+  protected SpanQuery parseAsSpan(String xmlFileName) throws ParserException, IOException {
+    return (SpanQuery)implParse(xmlFileName, true);
+  }
+
+  private Query implParse(String xmlFileName, boolean span) throws ParserException, IOException {
     try (InputStream xmlStream = TestCoreParser.class.getResourceAsStream(xmlFileName)) {
       assertNotNull("Test XML file " + xmlFileName + " cannot be found", xmlStream);
-      Query result = coreParser().parse(xmlStream);
-      return result;
+      if (span) {
+        return coreParser().parseAsSpanQuery(xmlStream);
+      } else {
+        return coreParser().parse(xmlStream);
+      }
     }
   }