The Women of Asheville fell to the NC Courage by a score of 3-1 on Wednesday, May 24th at Greenwood Field in an exciting affair with plenty of chances for both teams.

The Courage opened up the scoring in the 3rd minute when a mad scramble happened in front of the Blues goal. After a sliding goal line clearance from an Asheville defender robbed the Courage of a sure goal, Annabelle Abbott pounced on the rebound and fired a shot towards the goal that deflected off of a Blues defender and landed in the back of the net, putting the Courage up 1-0.

Asheville would create their first bit of danger in the 7th minute after a foul by the Courage in the left half-space in the attacking zone. Abby Boyan sent a curling freekick towards the far post where it took a deflection in a sea of bodies but the ball sailed just wide of the post.

In the 15th minute, the Blues were creating more trouble for the Courage backline. During a counter-attack, Riley Thompson dribbled up the middle before laying on a beautiful ball to the corner of the goal box for Ilana Izquierdo, whose first-time shot whistled high over the crossbar.

After both squads could not capitalize on a bevy of chances, the Blues would break through in 41st minute. Izquierdo served up a wonderful ball off of a corner kick that found the head of Parker Roberts who soared over a pack of teammates and opponents alike to knot the score at 1 a piece.

The Blues would create the first bit of danger in the second after Izquierdo lofted a ball over the Courage backline and into the path of Boyan on the right flank. Boyan turned and fired a cross that just missed the head of Thompson before being corralled by a diving Maeve English to put out the fire.

However, North Carolina would break the tie in the 55th minute when they pounced on a mistake from the Blues backline. After a nice display of team passing opened up Alexis Strickland on the right wing, she cut the ball back into the middle to Mia Oliaro, whose powerful shot from the edge of the box was too strong for Lauren Kellett’s fingertips to keep out of the net and the Courage would jump back out in front. 

In the 62nd minute, the Courage would threaten again when Eabha O’Mahony would play a nice one-two with Mackenzie Geigle inside of the box on the left side. O’Mahony received the return pass and blasted a low-driven strike towards the nearside bottom corner but Kellett was quick enough to get down and steer the shot wide of the post.

Asheville would come close to finding the equalizer in the 7oth minute after some flair from Izquierdo. Carina Leal would use a quality step-over to create space on the right flank before cutting inside and sending a cross over to Izquierdo. Izquierdo would settle the ball with a scorpion kick and pop it back over the defender before pulling the volley just wide of the near post. 

The Courage would pad their lead in the 74th minute off of a counter-attacking opportunity. Kellett would save the original shot, a point-blank laser from the six, but the rebound would careen out right where Strickland would pounce on it and slide it back into the middle for an easy tap-in for Phoebe Goldthwaite to extend the Courage’s lead to 3-1.

The Blues would create a handful of chances in the dying embers of the game, but none would connect with the back of the net and the game would finish 3-1 in favor of the Courage. 

Lauren Kellett was awarded the Highland Brewing Wishing Star of the Match for her efforts on the night.

Up next, the Women in Blue travel to Cary for a rematch with this same NC Courage side on Saturday, May 30th.

The Women return to Greenwood Field on Saturday, June 3rd, to host the Charlotte Independence.

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