Seattle Reign Bounce Back With 3-0 Win Over Kansas City Current
By Becca Weinberg
Spokane, WA - The Seattle Reign secured a 3-0 win in their first home match of the 2026 season, at Spokane One Stadium, their temporary home while Lumen Field renovations continue. All three goals were scored in the first half, and the Reign kept the pressure on the Kansas City Current until the final whistle. The team was very outspoken about not being satisfied with their previous match against the Portland Thorns and the various challenges leading up to that game, but they all showed the team that they truly want to be in this match.
Seattle Reign defender Phoebe McClernon and midfielder Angharad James-Turner embrace after James-Turner’s goal in the first half of the club's win over the Kansas City Current on March 25th, 2026, at ONE Spokane Stadium. (Photo by Jane Gershovich, provided by Seattle Reign FC)
Midfielder Angharad James-Turner opened the scoring in the 18th minute after connecting on a corner kick from forward Emeri Adames. The ball took one bounce in the box, and James-Turner hit a one-touch rocket into the corner of the goal for a 1-0 Reign lead. Kansas City goalkeeper Lorena managed to get her hand on the end of it, but the shot blew right past her outstretched arm.
Seattle Reign forward Brittany Ratcliffe celebrates her goal in the first half of the club's win over the Kansas City Current on March 25th, 2026, at ONE Spokane Stadium. (Photo by Jane Gershovich, provided by Seattle Reign FC)
Eight minutes later, forward Brittany Ratcliffe scored her second goal in three games with a looping assist into the box from defender Sofia Huerta directly to Ratcliffe’s feet. She scored another one-touch goal that flew into the near post for a 2-0 Seattle lead.
“Britt’s awesome,” said Huerta postgame. “I mean, I've been in the league the same amount of time as her, and she's always been a player that you hate to play against, because she's very, you know, tenacious. She’s fast, she wants to score, she's good defensively, and on top of the great soccer player that she is, she's such a cool person. She came in and immediately fit in with the team..I’ve really appreciated having another veteran player on the team."
The scoring continued in the 33rd minute, when another textbook Huerta cross found midfielder Maddie Mercado in the box, who scored a beautiful header to go up 3-0 over Kansas City. With her two assists in the game, Huerta extended her NWSL regular-season assist record to 34.
The Seattle Reign celebrate forward Maddie Mercado’s goal in the first half of the club's win over the Kansas City Current on March 25th, 2026, at ONE Spokane Stadium. (Photo by Jane Gershovich, provided by Seattle Reign FC)
While no more goals were scored after halftime, the Reign threatened on multiple occasions and had chances to widen the goal deficit for the Current. They improved drastically on set-piece opportunities since their previous game against Portland, and used a commanding yet calm high press to keep the ball largely out of their defensive third.
Potentially lost in the score was Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey’s 14th NWSL regular-season shutout, which officially made her the club’s all-time leader in clean sheets. With this win, the Reign now hold an eight-game unbeaten streak at home, dating back to August 1st, 2025.
“I thought the whole team, from the starters to the players that came on, executed brilliantly today,” said head coach Laura Harvey postgame. “We wanted to make sure we could see out a game in a really good way. And I thought we defended really well, we were smart, we put balls in areas where they couldn’t score on us, we turned them a lot, and we made it really challenging for them to get anything really going. And when a team comes out three-nil down at halftime, you expect a response, and there was one from them, but we really stood up to them.”
Quick match notes from Reign PR
Seattle scored three first-half goals for the first time since April 22, 2023, when the club earned a 5-2 win over Chicago Stars FC.
It also marks the first time Seattle has scored three goals from three different players since August 18, 2025 (also vs. Chicago).
Reign FC finished the 2025 regular season on a seven-game home unbeaten run (4W, 3D). With tonight’s win, Seattle is now unbeaten in eight straight home matches, a streak dating back to August 1, 2025.
It marks the club’s longest home unbeaten run since June 2018 to June 2019, when Seattle went 12 games unbeaten (7W, 5D).
Claudia Dickey recorded her first shutout since October 5, 2025, against Gotham FC. The fifth-year goalkeeper now has 14 regular-season shutouts, breaking a tie with Phallon Tullis-Joyce to become the club’s all-time leader.
Dickey also made three saves, bringing her career total to 182, just five shy of Hope Solo’s club record (187).
With tonight’s appearance, Jess Fishlock moved into second all-time in NWSL history with 218 regular-season appearances, trailing Lauren Barnes (252).
The NWSL’s all-time assist leader added two more assists in the first half, extending her regular-season assist record to 34. Sofia Huerta now has 15 assists with Seattle, which ranks fifth in club history.
The performance marks her fourth career multi-assist game and first since 2021, tying Kim Little for the most multi-assist games in NWSL history.
Angharad James-Turner opened the scoring in the 18th minute, finishing a corner from Emeri Adames.
The goal is her first since the 2024 season and the third of her NWSL career.
Maddie Mercado extended Seattle’s lead to 3-0 in the 33rd minute with a header off a cross from Sofia Huerta.
The goal is the second of her NWSL career and her first since the final match of her rookie season in 2024.
Brittany Ratcliffe doubled Seattle’s lead in the 26th minute, scoring her second goal of the season and 12th of her NWSL career.
With tonight's result, Reign FC improves to 7-6-1 against the Kansas City Current across all competitions.
The Reign will continue their busy week with another “home game” in Spokane on Saturday against Racing Louisville at 3:30 PM. That match will be broadcast live on ION, in the second of three “home” games at ONE Spokane Stadium.
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Check out our previous Seattle Reign FC articles here.
Check out our previous articles written for CSS by Becca Weinberg here, and her work with Lookout Landing here.
Photos in this article by Ted Warren, provided by Seattle Reign FC
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