The Spirit took the field at Audi against the San Diego Wave in front of a record-breaking 19,897 fans on a beautiful Saturday June evening. The Spirit were without Andi Sullivan and Kate Wiesner as both were out with injury, which brought Courtney Brown and Paige Metayer in to the starting XI.
As the game began, the Spirit had the best of the Wave but were unable to put the ball in the back of the net. After a Croix Bethune shot went off the post in the ninth minute, the Wave started to assert themselves more and play swung their wave. They were able to capitalize in the twentieth minute when Jaedyn Shaw took the cross in front of goal and, after a slight slip that sent Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury to respond to what she anticipated as the original shot, was able to slot it home.
Later in the first half, Spirit outside back Gabby Carle suffered an injury and, after trying to resume, had to be subbed off in the 45th minute. This caused a further shuffle to the normal squad, sending Hal Hershfelt to right back while sub Ashley Hatch came in to the midfield.
The second half saw a number of Spirit attacks while the Wave were largely unable to get the ball into the Spirit’s final third. The Spirit offense had a total of eight shots on goal, with forward Trinity Rodman having four of those on six total shots. But the shots were for naught until stoppage time, when in the last minute of the 6 minutes added on, left back Casey Krueger sent in a long ball to the box. Wave defender Abby Dahlkemper headed the ball but instead of clearing it, it landed in the pasth of Spirit midfielder Croix Bethune. Bethune controlled the ball off her chest and then sent in a near side shot between Wave goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan and the post, bringing the match to a 1-1 tie. Neither team was able to break the tie in the last minute and both came away with a point, leaving the Spirit in third place in the league while the Wave sit in 9th, just outside the playoff line.
