Jess Fishlock scored in her 200th regular-season NWSL match as Seattle Reign earned a hard-fought three points on the road against the North Carolina Courage. Jordyn Bugg blasted a shot from distance to double the Reign's lead, with the final score ending at 2-1 in the Reign's favor.
Bugg's first NWSL goal came from 32.7 yards out, the longest ever scored by a teenager in the NWSL.
32.7 - Measuring 32.7 yards, 18-year-old Jordyn Bugg's goal for Seattle reign on Saturday was the longest ever struck by a teenager in #NWSL history. Audacity.
— OptaJack (@optajack.optajoe.com) 2025-03-23T17:16:37.811Z
Here are three additional stats from the Reign's 2-1 road win.
Steve Voght
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The average age of the Reign's backline, including goalkeeper Claudia Dickey, was 23 years old. Rookie Emily Mason made her NWSL and Reign debut at right back — starting next to Jordyn Bugg, Phoebe McClernon, and Madison Curry, who all started in the season opener.
Curry and Mason are new to the squad this year, while this was only Bugg's seventh start with the Reign. While it would be understandable if the Reign needed time to gel on the defensive end because of these young new additions, the Reign have looked organized and composed in their first two matches.
The backline won 8 of 12 tackles, had 12 interceptions (with Curry earning five), cleared the ball 22 times, and won 15/27 ground duels. They held the Courage to just three shots in the first hour of the match. After that, Dickey showed up with some big saves to close out the game.
Mason played centerback almost exclusively in college but she started at right back under Harvey for the U.S. U-20s back in 2020. As Harvey noted after the match, Mason looked poised during her first minutes in this somewhat unfamiliar role.
"To come up against a Brazilian international who I thought she did great against, in a really difficult place to come play ... and to show how good she is on both sides of the ball. I think she had a little hand to play in the first goal and just is very solid. She's athletic, she's good in the air, she's not bad on the ball. She's got all the attributes that you need to be a top defender in this league. And I'm just really happy for her — because having your debut as a professional and it being here is challenging. I thought she was great."
There is, of course, still room for improvement for the Reign's defense. They need to ensure they are in control for more of the match, but they are also showing more composure than last year. And they did all this against the Courage, who have only lost at home three times over the last two seasons.
34
As this graphic from Matt Barger shows, a lot of the Reign's chances came from winning the ball in their attacking half. According to Wyscout data, the Reign had 34 recoveries in their attacking half. Six of those led directly to shots. As Barger further highlights, the Reign only had to progress the ball 17.8 meters up the field on average to get a shot off—compared to 36 meters for the Courage.
North Carolina Courage 1-2 Seattle Reign FC Passes per shot sequence: NC 5.6-2.6 SEA Avg Progression to shot (m): NC 36-17.8 SEA Shots: NC 14-12 SEA xG: NC 1.29-1.01 SEA xG (open play): NC 1.26-0.91 SEA xG (dead ball): NC 0.02-0.03 SEA #NWSL #WoSo #NCvSEA #ForTheLove #HereForTheCrown
— Matt Barger (@mattbarger.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T04:45:03.469227Z
The average position maps below highlight the Reign's first two matches. As you can see, Seattle kept wide forwards Maddie Dahlien and Ana-Maria Crnogorčević higher but had center forward Maddie Mercado drop deeper to cut off North Carolina's options into the midfield.
In addition to that, the Reign closed down faster on the Courage than they did against Gotham. According to Wyscout, in the first 60 minutes, the Reign limited North Carolina to 8.5 passes per defensive action (PPDA). PPDA is used to highlight the intensity of a team's press. It marks how many passes, on average, an opponent completes before a team has a defensive action like an interception, duel won, or foul. The lower the number, the more intense a team's press. For comparison, the Reign averaged 12.2 PPDA in their first half against Gotham.
"We play North Carolina twice every year, and my mentality to them is that you have to be aggressive defensively," Harvey said after the match. The team definitely did that for the first hour of the match.
10
Ten of North Carolina's 13 shots came after the Reign went up 2-0. In some ways, this can be expected. The Courage, who are typically dominant at home, were trying to claw their way back after struggling for the first hour. Meanwhile, the Reign were without three key players due to injuries. At the same time, this Seattle Reign team needs to ensure it can hold onto a lead and stay in control of matches for 90 minutes.
"Once we scored the second goal, I'm not sure whether tiredness set in or we became a little bit comfortable and they started to step onto us a little bit," Harvey pondered after the match. "And then after their goal, it became more and more difficult for us. Something we can learn from, and the best time to learn is when you've won, so we'll take it."
There's still a lot of season left, so the Reign will have plenty of chances to improve and show they can be a dominant team for an entire match.
The Reign (1-0-1) continue their road trip with a game against Angel City (0-0-2) on Sunday, March 30. That match kicks off at 5 PM PT and will air on CBS Sports Network.
