West Wake News

The North Carolina Courage will play their first home game of the season against Seattle Reign FC at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park on Saturday, March 22, at 7 p.m. ET.

After the match, the Courage will honor legendary forward Jessica McDonald by inducting her into the club’s Ring of Honor. Sam Mewis, who was inducted in 2024, will attend to help celebrate McDonald. Fans can meet McDonald and get autographs during FanFest at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Both teams drew their season openers last weekend with goals from their U-20 USWNT stars. Riley Jackson scored for the Courage against Racing Louisville, while Emeri Adams equalized for Seattle against Gotham. The two players were teammates in last year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.

Jackson's goal marked her second for the Courage and her first in a regular-season match. In their previous game, the Courage held 67.8% possession and had a narrow edge in shots over Louisville.

Assistant coach Nathan Thackeray commented on the team's performance: “The team is in a good frame of mind. We came away from the Louisville game with a lot of positives... There are parts of the performance that can get better, but there were a lot of parts of the performance that were really good.”

Jaedyn Shaw, Hannah Betfort, and Shinomi Koyama made their debuts for the Courage in this match. Betfort created two chances as a substitute within 34 minutes on the field.

Goalkeeper Casey Murphy made six saves during last Saturday's rain-soaked draw and aims to maintain her form against her former team this weekend.

Under Head Coach Sean Nahas since 2022, North Carolina has maintained a strong home record with a 20-9-9 regular season tally at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park.

Seattle boasts offensive talents like Jordyn Huitema and Ji So-Yun but missed Lynn Biyendolo (nee Williams) due to injury during their opener. Biyendolo previously scored a club-record 42 goals during five seasons with North Carolina.

With both teams having one point after Week 1 and only three teams winning across the league so far this season, Saturday’s match could set an early tone for both sides in 2025.