The Canada Day/Independence Day weekend kicked off with Portland hosting Seattle. In a back-and-forth battle, the Thorns and Reign settled for a 3-3 draw, keeping the home side one point ahead of the visitors in the Western Conference standings.
***
The second match of Lifetime's doubleheader pitted the Atlanta Storm against their Southeast rivals, the Orlando Pride.
Dalen Cuff: One year ago, the Atlanta Storm were floating near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Fast forward to this season, where a couple of preseason moves to fix glaring deficiencies have allowed them to be sitting in a playoff position after 10 matches. Tonight, they will take on the team which stands just above them in the East and who it looks like they will battle for second place and the right to host the other in the Eastern Conference semifinals. It's Atlanta and Orlando, next on Lifetime.
After the opening montage, Dalen reminded the viewers what happened the last time Lifetime was in Atlanta for a match, with a short recap of Love 4 All and Lindsey's proposal to Emily being shown. He then did a short interview with the two players before sending it up to Jenn Hildreth and Cat Whitehill for the call of the match.
The Storm started out aggressively, with new acquisition Janine Beckie bagging a pair of goals inside the first fifteen minutes, making Orlando goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris look pedestrian on both attempts. The Pride pulled back a goal just before halftime, but Brynn Finneran headed home a Brooke Elby cross to provide Atlanta an insurance goal that would allow them to see out a 3-1 victory over the Pride and move ahead of them into second place in the Eastern Conference.
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Elsewhere in the league:
* A goal from Ashley Hatch proved to be all the Courage would need as they defeated Sky Blue 1-0 behind the stellar goalkeeping of Kelsey Wys.
* In Houston, goals from Julie Johnston Ertz and Cali Farquharson gave the Philadelphia Charge a 2-0 win and left the Dash winless on the season.
* The Chicago Red Stars utilized goals from Steph McCaffrey, Sofia Huerta, Vanessa DiBernardo, and Kat Stephens to demolish FC Kansas City, 4-0. Kristie Mewis picked up a pair of assists as she continued to make her case for additional US National Team call-ups.
* Four goals from Christen Press were just the elixir the Los Angeles Olympias needed to extend their lead at the top of the Western Conference with a 5-1 win over the Washington Spirit.
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The last match of the night was in Vancouver, as the homestanding Legacy faced the league-leading Boston Breakers. Behind the impenetrable defense of Stephanie Labbe, Abby Dahlkemper, Megan Oyster, and Sam Mewis, the Breakers had yet to allow a goal when all four were on the pitch. Riding a pair of shutouts on either side of the June international break, confidence was high for Boston to come away from BC Place with three points and further extend their league in the the East following Orlando's stumble in Atlanta.
The Legacy kicked off to start the match and their front line of Deanne Rose and Adriana Leon made life difficult on the Back Bay Triangle, forcing Labbe into a pair of full-extension saves within the first ten minutes. The Breakers eventually gained a bit of possession and a free kick by Dahlkemper was headed out of bounds for a corner kick. Dahlkemper's corner found Caitlyn DiSarcina at the near post and her re-direction struck the net behind Caroline Stanley for the opening tally.
As full-time drew to a close, a tic-tac-toe passing exhibition that involved eight of the Breakers' eleven players led to Jessie Fleming playing a give-and-go with Rose Lavelle that got her behind Vancouver's back line, where her left-footed strike beat Stanley for a 2-0 lead that would be the final score.
***
Portland 3 Seattle 3 (Quinn/Gibbons, Raso/Boureille, Heath pk; Johnson/Kawasumi, Yanez/Pickett, Lavasseur/Nairn)
Atlanta 3 Orlando 1 (Beckie/Troccoli, Beckie/O'Hara, Finneran/Elby; Ubogagu/Horan)
North Carolina 1 Sky Blue 0 (Hatch/Kallman)
Chicago 4 Kansas City 0 (McCaffrey/Mewis, Huerta/Mewis, DiBernardo pk, Stephens/Gilliland)
Houston 0 Philadelphia 2 (Ertz/Haracic, Farquharson/McDonald)
Los Angeles 5 Washington 1 (Williams/Sanchez, Press/Cooper, Press/Williams, Press/Sanchez, Press/Rowland; Jordan/Williams)
Vancouver 0 Boston 2 (DiSarcina/Dahlkemper, Fleming/Lavelle)
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