CARY, N.C. (Oct. 7, 2023) — The North Carolina Courage played San Diego Wave FC to a scoreless draw Saturday night in a chilly but electric night at WakeMed Soccer Park. The match saw 10,434 fans enter the gates, which set both a club and WakeMed Soccer Park record.

The previous attendance record for the Courage of 10,227 was set during the 2019 NWSL Final while the 2022 NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship had been the venue record prior to Saturday evening. With a seating capacity of 10,000, the standing room only admission was a showcase of the Triangle’s love for professional soccer and was a tremendous moment for the home season finale to carry momentum into 2024. The Courage had 12 shots to San Diego’s four and held 60% of possession on the night. The Courage had the best chance of the opening half when Kerolin and Emily Fox combined to play Narumi through in the box, but her shot was saved off the line by a last-ditch effort from the defender to keep the home side off the board. Kerolin later had a free kick from just outside the box that forced Wave keeper Kailen Sheridan into a full stretch to make the highlight-reel save. The Courage, who pitched their NWSL-best ninth clean sheet of the season, had several more big opportunities to crack the scoreboard throughout the evening, but could not find the goal to get ahead. The Courage will finish the weekend in third place in the NWSL standings with one match remaining.

Match Notes

• Denise O’Sullivan became the club record holder for all-time regular season minutes played in the 50’ at 9,393 minutes.

• Kerolin’s 10 goals are the fifth time a Courage player has scored double-digit goals in a single NWSL regular season

Next Match: The Courage finish the regular season with a trip to face the Washington Spirit next Sunday, October 15, for a 5:00 p.m. ET kickoff at Audi Field. The match will stream live on Paramount+.

Box Score:

NCC (4-3-3): Casey Murphy, Emily Fox, Malia Berkely, Kaleigh Kurtz, Ryan Williams, Narumi Miura, Denise O’Sullivan ©, Haley Hopkins (Mille Gejl – 75’), Manaka Matsukubo (Victoria Pickett – 80’), Kerolin, Tess Boade (Rikke Madsen – 80’)

Subs Not Used: Katelyn Rowland, Brianna Pinto, Brittany Ratcliffe, Frankie Tagliaferri, Sydney Collins, Tyler Lussi

SDW (4-3-3): Kailen Sheridan, Madison Pogarch (Kaleigh Riehl – 78’), Naomi Girma, Abby Dahlkemper, Christen Westphal, Danielle Colaprico (Meggie Dougherty-Howard – 58’), Jaedyn Shaw (Makenzy Doniak – 78’), Emily van Egmond, Alex Morgan ©, Kyra Carusa (Taylor Kornieck – 69’), Rachel Hill (Sofia Jacobsson – 78’)

Subs Not Used: Amirah Ali, Melanie Barcenas, Sierra Enge, Shae Yanez

Score:

NCC: 0

SDW: 0

Goals:

NCC:

SDW:

Cautions:

NCC: K. Kurtz – 63’

SDW: M. Pogarch – 61’; K. Riehl – 79’; T. Kornieck – 89’

Ejections:

NCC: –

SDW: –

Attendance: 10,434