**Washington, District of Columbia** – The Washington Spirit and the Orlando Pride dueled their way to a scoreless draw in the first of two games across the league on Sunday night. Though the Spirit dominated statistically outshooting the Pride 17-4 in total shots and 5-2 in shots on goal, the club is now winless in their last in their last 12 regular season games—the first of which came right after the Challenge Cup Final loss.
An incredible chance for the visiting Pride came for forward Darian Jenkins in the 16 ^th minute as Orlando looked to establish themselves early on. A defense-splitting run from Jenkins was found and targeted by midfielder Erika Tymrak with a through ball into the penalty area. Holding her run well, Jenkins was able to get to the pass and into a 1v1 with Spirit goalkeeper Devon Kerr. However, as she opened up her right foot and attempted to push the ball to her right side, she was unable to keep the shot on target and it landed just wide of goal.
Then, in the fourth minute of what would ultimately be six added on to first half stoppage, Jenkins was again at the center of a Pride move that nearly opened the scoring. This time, Jenkins was set up on the right side of the penalty area via a pass from midfielder Meggie Dougherty Howard and she charged ahead in a positive direction toward goal. Though she got a powerful shot away, Jenkins was still unable to guide the ball to the far corner and past Kerr, who made a solid save and parried the ball away from danger.
At the halftime whistle, neither side was able to break the deadlock.
Straight out of the interval, Washington got off to a great start as they pressed the Orlando backline and created a solid scoring opportunity in the 47 ^th minute. Defender Camryn Biegalski found midfielder Jordan Baggett with a short pass just inside the penalty area, and after just a touch to settle the ball Baggett curled a beautiful shot toward goalkeeper Erin McLeod’s left side. McLeod leapt into the air and produced a good save though, and all at the cost of a corner that produced nothing on the Washington front.
As the match wore on, Orlando had a couple of opportunities that were either saved by Kerr or unable to hit the target. One final look at goal came the Pride’s way though, with substitute Abi Kim’s charge forward in the 90 ^th minute. Kim put herself in a 1v1 position with Washington defender Sam Staab as she entered the box, and right as Kim was about to swing her foot back to shoot Staab made a brilliant sliding challenge to concede a corner kick.
In the end, Washington looked the better of the two sides on the stat sheet but Orlando could argue they produced the more quality of the chances. Either way, neither side found the back of the net as the points were split at Audi Field.

Match Highlights

Match Highlights