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FILE – NC Courage midfielder Ashley Sanchez (2) in action during an NWSL soccer match between the NC Courage and Louisville Racing in Louisville, Ky., Saturday, March 15, 2025.<\/p>\n
AJ Mast\/AP Photo\/AJ Mast<\/p>\n
Yazmeen Ryan scored against her former team and Kat Asman made four crucial saves in the Denver Summit’s 3-0 win on Sunday over visiting Gotham FC in the National Women’s Soccer League.<\/p>\n
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In the day\u2019s other matches, the North Carolina Courage stunned the Chicago Stars 6-0; the Washington Spirit came from behind to beat the Portland Thorns 2-1; the Orlando Pride overtook the Houston Dash 3-1; and the Seattle Reign beat the San Diego Wave 1-0.<\/p>\n
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Gotham (13-4-6) has sat atop the National Women\u2019s Soccer League standings for six weeks, with its last loss coming July 4 against the Wave. The expansion Summit had already beaten Gotham once this season, recording the first win in franchise history 2-0.<\/p>\n
Denver (8-8-6) opened the scoring in the 50th minute when Yuzuki Yamamoto connected on the volley from Ayo Oke.<\/p>\n
Rookie Olivia Thomas extended Denver\u2019s lead in the 82nd minute, driving into the box before ripping a shot past goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger.<\/p>\n
Six minutes later, Ryan sent a shot to the bottom left corner out of Berger\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n
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Sanchez widens Golden Boot lead <\/p>\n
Ashley Sanchez had a hat trick in North Carolina’s 6-0 rout of the Stars (5-17-1) in Evanston, Illinois and now leads the league\u2019s Golden Boot race with 18 goals.<\/p>\n
Sanchez, lurking at Chicago goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan\u2019s back post, capitalized on a cross and knocked a ball that was pinging around the box into the back of the net in the 11th minute.<\/p>\n
Just six minutes later, Chioma Okafor pushed the lead to 2-0 with her first NWSL goal.<\/p>\n
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The Courage (12-8-3) combined for three goals in eight minutes in the second half. Shinomi Koyama scored in the 61st minute and two minutes later, Ryan Williams collected a rebound and put it away to make it 4-0.<\/p>\n
Sanchez converted a penalty before capping her hat trick with a header off a cross from Williams. in the 81st minute<\/p>\n
Bethi caps first Spirit start with winner<\/p>\n
M\u00e9lissa Bethi scored her first league goal in her first start for the Spirit in the 80th minute in Portland.<\/p>\n
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Trinity Rodman beat the defenders down the sideline and crossed to Bethi for the goal.<\/p>\n
The Thorns (11-7-5) set the tone early when Sophia Wilson converted a penalty in the 18th minute. Portland was awarded the kick after Monique Ngock pulled down Thorns midfielder Nina Nijstad in the box.<\/p>\n
The Spirit (13-6-4) leveled the match in the 59th minute when Nijstad committed a foul against Bethi in the penalty box. After video review, Tara Rudd stepped up to score the lick.<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s Andi Sullivan was ejected in the seventh minute of stoppage time after a rough tackle just outside the penalty area.<\/p>\n
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Banda breaks Marta\u2019s single-season scoring record for the Pride<\/p>\n
Barbra Banda made Orlando Pride history Sunday, converting a 42nd-minute penalty to become the club\u2019s single-season scoring leader.<\/p>\n
Her 14th goal of the season surpassed Marta\u2019s record set in 2017, as the Pride went on to defeat the Houston Dash 3-1 in Orlando.<\/p>\n
Banda\u2019s record-setting goal capped a first half in which Orlando took advantage of early Houston mistakes. Dash rookie Leah Klenke put the Pride ahead with an own goal in the 14th minute before conceding a penalty against Summer Yates 28 minutes later.<\/p>\n
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Banda sent her shot into the bottom left corner past goalkeeper Jane Campbell, giving Orlando a 2-0 lead heading into halftime.<\/p>\n
Banda has scored in eight different home appearances this season, a feat achieved by only four players in NWSL history.<\/p>\n
Orlando (9-12-2) stretched its advantage in the 64th minute on Haley McCutcheon’s goal.<\/p>\n
Houston (7-11-5) scored less than 10 minutes later when Khyah Harper\u2019s cross found Kiki Van Zanten, who headed the ball past goalkeeper Cosette Morch\u00e9.<\/p>\n
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Mercado rises to lift Reign over Wave<\/p>\n
Maddie Mercado finished off a lofted cross from Maddie Dahlien with a header for a goal in the Reign’s win at home.<\/p>\n
Seattle (10-8-4) played with a player advantage over San Diego (12-8-3) for much of the match after Wave defender Amelia Van Zanten was shown a red card in the 13th minute. Van Zanten was sent off for a tackle from behind on Dahlien.<\/p>\n
Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey made six saves before exiting the match following a collision with Wave forward Ludmila. Cassie Miller helped preserve Seattle\u2019s clean sheet.<\/p>\n
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See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – NC Courage midfielder Ashley Sanchez (2) in action during an NWSL soccer match between the NC…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1048254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[419803,5229,58533,336721,368523,419800,76771,329765,419797,419801,419798,419802,419804,296798,76770,184754,223492,223490,324434,289007,289009,293534,328782,336138,329767,336726,286666,324435,336644,325972,26187,7202,3549,7203,286927,419799,358,419796,30491,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1048253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-amelia-van-zanten","tag-america","tag-ann-katrin-berger","tag-ashley-sanchez","tag-barbra-banda","tag-claudia-dickey","tag-cosette-morche","tag-jane-campbell","tag-kiki-van-zanten","tag-leah-klenke","tag-melissa-bethi","tag-monique-ngock","tag-nina-nijstad","tag-olivia-thomas","tag-orlando-pride","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32554-ap-online-soccer-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-product-40777-ap-colorado-sports-only","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-product-40784-ap-illinois-sports-only","tag-product-40795-ap-missouri-sports-only","tag-product-40804-ap-north-carolina-sports-only","tag-product-40808-ap-oregon-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-product-40819-ap-washington-dc-sports-only","tag-product-40820-ap-washington-state-sports-only","tag-ryan-williams","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-diego","tag-sanantonio","tag-sophia-wilson","tag-tara-rudd","tag-texas","tag-thorns-sprit-reign-wave-courage-stars-pride-dash-gotham-summit-score-nwsl","tag-trinity-rodman","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}