In their second and final preseason match of 2017, Seattle Reign FC won 3–0 against the University of Washington. It was the club’s fourth ever match against the Huskies, improving their all-time record to 4–0–0.
“First clean sheet of preseason and I think that’s again a good omen going into next week’s game,” said Seattle Reign FC head coach and general manager Laura Harvey. “Pushing us on to do that was a big thing tonight. We spoke about [it] after UCLA and said that that’s something we’ve got to be very proud of.”
The game marked Reign FC debuts for goalkeeper Madalyn Schiffel, who entered for Haley Kopmeyer in the 56th minute, Haley Rosen, who entered for Lauren Barnes in the 71st minute, and Jordan Jesolva, who entered for Christine Nairn in the 77th minute.
University of Washington alumnae Lindsay Elston and Veronica Perez both started the match. It was also the first preseason start for Rachel Corsie.
Forward Beverly Yanez scored the first goal of the match in the 22nd minute. It was Yanez’s first goal of the preseason.
“I had a lot of shots on goal but I really need to clean it up,” said Yanez. “I was hoping to get more than one for the team. Overall as a team we came out and started a little bit hesitant but I think we picked it up throughout the game. I’m really proud of our performance.”
The buildup to the goal began with Nahomi “Naho” Kawasumi slotting in Merritt Mathias behind the defense. Mathias then sent a low cross to the back post, where a wide open Yanez tapped the ball into the back of the net.
“We didn’t plan that this game was going to be a fresh game and I think we saw that in the first half,” said Harvey. “The second half was a lot better by us. We were patient and worked really hard at breaking them down and we should and could’ve had a lot of goals.”
Reign FC entered halftime with a one goal lead, but would double the score just seven minutes into the second half with a goal from Naho. Like Naho, Kiersten Dallstream also put her name on the scoresheet for the second consecutive game, scoring the games final goal in the 64th minute.
“We’ve really challenged ourselves tactically on a lot of things that we need to be good at and I think we’re starting to now get into a bit of a rhythm moving forward next week’s game,” said Harvey. “We’re moving into the right direction for sure.”
“I think it’s a great note to end on heading into our home opener,” said Yanez. “We’re all really excited for April 15th. In front of our home crowd we really want to put on a show.”
Up next, Seattle will open their 2017 NWSL regular season on Saturday, April 15th at Memorial Stadium when they host Sky Blue FC. Single match tickets are now available. To purchase tickets, visit reignfc.com/tickets or call the Reign FC ticket office at (855) REIGN-FC.
Photos courtesy of Alyssa Charlston.
