Main Takeaways

The Courage recorded their second win of the regular season in a thrilling 3-2 victory against the Washington Spirit. After leading for 73 minutes, the Courage allowed two goals before scoring in stoppage time to secure the win. 

Game Recap

The North Carolina Courage traveled to Leesburg, Virginia to take on the Washington Spirit in a rematch of the 2022 Challenge Cup Final. The Courage made no changes to the line up that started last week against Racing Louisville FC, and they wasted no time in getting on the board.

Brianna Pinto played a perfectly weighted ball behind the Spirit back line and into Kerolin Nicoli in the sixth minute. Kerolin finished past Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury and into the side netting. It was Kerolin’s first-ever NWSL Regular Season goal.

North Carolina kept up the pace for the first third of the game, but the Spirit fought back and ended the half with a handful of dangerous chances. 



Shortly after the second-half kicked off, though, Courage captain Abby Erceg doubled her team’s lead off a set piece. Carson Pickett served a ball that was nearly in Kingsbury’s reach, but lots of traffic around the keeper prevented her from making the save.

The game continued in back-and-forth fashion until the Spirit put one on the board in the 74th minute. A poor clearance by Courage defender Kaleigh Kurtz landed at the feet of Camryn Biegalski, who played a ball into Ashley Sanchez. Sanchez and Feist exchanged a set of passes before Sanchez put one in the back of the net.

An Ashley Hatch penalty pulled the Spirit even in the 79th minute after Sonnett was fouled in the box. The last 10 minutes and stoppage time of this match saw several dangerous chances for each team, but it was the Courage who prevailed thanks to a Kaleigh Kurtz goal in the second minute of stoppage time.

Erceg was Debinha’s target off the set piece, but a jumble in the box put the ball at Kurtz’s feet. The goal was Kurtz’s second in as many games, after she netted her first NWSL goal last week against Louisville.

With the loss, the Spirit have been winless through their last eight games. The Courage improved to 2W-1D-3L on the season, and look to continue their winning streak at home on Sunday, June 19th against the Houston Dash.