****Cary, North Carolina –** **The host, North Carolina Courage (4-2-1, 13 points) registered a shutout victory over the Portland Thorns (4-3-0, 12 points), by a final score of 2-0. After a scoreless first-half that saw the teams evenly matched it was the home team, North Carolina who broke the scoreless tie after **Lynn Williams** finished off a corner to give the Courage a 1-0 lead in the 57'. For the second straight game, Williams found the back of the net twice as she finished a cross from **Carson Pickett** in the 66' that gave North Carolina the 2-0 lead. The 30' was an important one for North Carolina's captain, **Abby Erceg** as she passed 10,000 regular season minutes played in the NWSL. She became the 14^th player to surpass the milestone and the first player from New Zealand to do so. In the match, Portland set their club record for most consecutive minutes without allowing a goal. Since joining NWSL in 2017, North Carolina has scored 157 goals in regular season play. The team with the next-most goals in that span is Portland with 129. The Thorns will remain on the road as they will next take on Racing Louisville FC on July, 3 at 7:30 PM ET. North Carolina will have over a week off until their next game when they will travel to Orlando to take on the Pride on July, 4 at 6:00 PM ET. Both games can be seen on Paramount +.

Match Highlights

Match Highlights