San Diego Wave Fútbol Club​ Wins For 4th Time In 5 Games

SAN DIEGO, CA — Alex Morgan scored in the 41st minute as the San Diego Wave Fútbol Club rebounded from its first regular-season loss with a 1-0 victory over the North Carolina Courage Sunday in Cary, North Carolina.

Morgan collected a through ball from Taylor Kornieck just outside the penalty area and put a left-footed shot from about 15 yards out past goalkeeper Casey Murphy for her league-leading sixth goal, all in the past four games.

Morgan moved into sole possession of sixth place on the National Women's Soccer League's career goal-scoring list with 44, breaking a tie with Carli Lloyd.

Kailen Sheridan made two saves for her third shutout of the season, stopping shots by Debinha outside the penalty area in the 56th and 65th minutes. Murphy made one save for the Courage (0-3-0), stopping a shot by Tegan McGrady from outside the penalty area in the 51st minute.

Wave FC was outshot, 15-9. Both teams took two shots on goal, playing in 89-degree heat before a crowd announced at 6,070 at WakeMed Soccer Park.

"The conditions were unbearable just sitting on the sidelines, let alone playing," Wave FC coach Casey Stoney said after the victory that improved her team's its record to 4-1-0. "The 2 o'clock kickoff is interesting to me in these conditions.

"I think we had a disappointing result on Wednesday, but the key today was that they bounced back. Incredible attitude, and we changed the shape and in two days they picked it up brilliantly and applied themselves. We have to be immensely proud of the performance and ultimately that we came away with three points today."

Stoney missed Wednesday's 1-0 loss to Racing Louisville FC in Louisville, Kentucky after testing positive for COVID-19.

Stoney was cleared to coach Sunday after testing negative following the necessary quarantine, a team official told City News Service.

North Carolina coach Sean Nahas said he "wanted to see a little bit of bite" from his team.

"There were moments where we were fine, where we did exactly what was needed and asked of us, but when the ball is on one side and we're so distant from each other, we don't have a second line, we don't have a second opportunity to stretch the backline," Nahas said.

"We wanted to sort of open up by swinging it and going through Merritt and Carson, and when we did that I think we found a lot of success," Nahas said, referring to defenders Merritt Mathias and Carson Pickett. "But we just didn't do it consistently enough, we kept it on one side."

— City News Service