Seattle Reign FC wraps up its three-game homestand on Saturday, September 12, as the club welcomes Bay FC to Lumen Field for the return leg of their season series. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. PT, and the match will stream on NWSL+.
Since the two sides last met at the start of August, Seattle has gone 4-1-2 and climbed two spots in the standings, while Bay has struggled, with a 1-4-1 record over that same span and falling to 15th place. Though they cannot be eliminated from playoff contention for at least a few more weeks, Bay’s hopes of making the postseason are hanging on by the thinnest of threads.
The Reign also need every point they can gather, with Angel City just two points behind them and having played an equal number of games. Angel City hosts Denver tonight, so by the time the Reign kick off they could be at least temporarily below the playoff line.
The Reign earned a 1-0 win against San Diego last weekend and have extended their goal-scoring streak to 13 games, tying the club’s all-time record set way back in the 2014 season. Bay FC, meanwhile, is coming off a tough 2-1 home loss to the Kansas City Current, falling on an 89th minute goal by Rocky Rodriguez.
Seattle will likely be without goalkeeper Claudia Dickey, who suffered a facial laceration after a hard collision while blocking a shot from Ludmila late in last weekend’s game. While she did not suffer a concussion, Reign head coach Laura Harvey said that the deep wound (and stitches) was still an impediment so the team is expected to give her a few more days to recover.
With Neeku Purcell on loan with Dallas and Evan O’Steen with the US national team at the U20 Women’s World Cup, Salmon Bay FC goalkeeper Elena Milam has been signed to a short-term contract to back up Cassie Miller this weekend.
Head-to-Head
- The Reign and Bay FC have met five times in the regular season, with Bay holding the edge with 2 wins, compared to one for the Reign and two draws.
- The Reign are 0-1-1 at home against Bay FC.
- Seattle has scored seven goals across the series; Bay FC has scored eight.
- The two sides' last meeting, at the start of August in San Jose, ended with a 3-2 Reign win, their first ever against Bay FC. Mia Fishel, Maddie Dahlien and Jess Fishlock scored for the Reign, while Hannah Bebar and Keira Barry scored for the home side.
2026 record
Seattle Reign FC: 10-8-4 (34 points, 8th place)
Bay FC: 6-12-4 (22 points, 15th place)
Key stats
- Bay FC is 3-6-2 on the road
- Seattle Reign are 6-3-2 at home
- Jordan Silkowitz is second in the league in saves (87) and has six clean sheets
- Bay FC averages 4.5 shots on target per game compared to 4.4 for Seattle, 10th and 11th in the league
- Seattle leads the league with 5.8 successful crosses per game, while Bay averages 3.1 (13th)
- Seattle and Bay FC are in a four-way tie for the second-most yellow cards, with 33 apiece this season
- Maddie Mercado leads Seattle with eight goals and has a goal contribution in her past two games; Karlie Lema leads Bay FC with six goals
Who to watch
Jordan Silkowitz
Don’t let Bay FC’s position near the bottom of the standings fool you – goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz is having a stellar year. Her 10.4 goals prevented is second only to Jane Campbell (13.7) in the entire NWSL, and her 77.2% save percentage is second to Gotham’s Ann-Katrin Berger (78.2%). Silkowitz is essentially preventing Bay FC from conceding a half-goal more per game. Claudia Dickey, in comparison, has prevented 4.3 goals against for the Reign this season. Three games ago, Silkowitz made 10 saves to preserve the shutout in a 1-0 win over the Houston Dash, including several highlight reel snap-reaction stops like this one.
This save by Jordan Silkowitz >>>
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 4:21 PM · Aug 23, 2026
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While leaders in this stat tend to be goalkeepers who face a large number of quality shots on teams that with iffy defenses, it can easily go the other way if the goalkeeper herself is also struggling. Racing’s Jordyn Bloomer, for example, has conceded 4.9 more goals than stats would predict.
Karlie Lema
We highlighted Lema ahead of the prior match against Bay FC, and she continues to excel for the club, adding two more goals to her team-leading total (6), as well as leading the club in shots (33), shots on target (20) and offsides (18) as she looks get in behind and use her speed to beat defenses in a footrace. She’s also willing to put in defensive work up top to press opponents and force turnovers, which led to an early goal against Utah last month. The Reign defense will need to be wary of her both in and out of possession and not get caught in the back.
The incredible effort and speed of Karlie Lema 😮💨
— NWSL (@nwslsoccer.com) 7:25 PM · Aug 14, 2026
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What to watch
Playing up to their potential
Despite their remarkable goal-scoring streak, the Reign have struggled to decisively put away games. They’ve scored only one goal in each of their past five matches, which includes a game against an abysmal Chicago Stars side that has conceded 19 goals in their past four games, as well as while enjoying a player advantage for nearly 80 minutes against San Diego last weekend. In that same span the Reign have accumulated 10.12 xG (per FotMob), and more alarmingly, actually overperformed their expected output against the Wave (0.73).
Seattle has mostly shaken off the second-half yips that plagued them earlier in the season – they have not given up a goal in the final 15 minutes of a game since visiting Gotham in mid-July – but the team is still not showing a killer attacking instinct and ability to truly put a game out of reach, even when they dominate most stats.
“At the end of the day, we have to worry about the Reign and what the Reign is good at, what the Reign is bad at, what we have to work on, what we have to improve,” forward Brittany Ratcliffe told reporters pregame when asked about what the team has learned from recent challenges in putting opponents away. “I think we've done a really good job on focusing on us. Obviously, Bay is a good team, but if we can do the things that we have to do and carry out our game plan, we'll be fine. Obviously, we would love to score eight goals in every game, that would be great. But I think our focus is just being clean on the ball, working well together, getting a shutout, creating chances and being dangerous, and hopefully the goals will come.”
Bay FC has shown quality on defense, conceding only 30 goals (tied for 7th best in the league), though their attack has been anemic, scoring the second-fewest goals (22) ahead of only lowly Chicago. Can the Reign finally show a complete game from front to back, break down a good defense, and earn a statement win?
Two teams missing key young midfielders
The FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup has caused some disruption in both teams’ midfields for the next month, forcing adjustments in how they line up and in their tactical approach.
Seattle is without 19-year-old Ainsley McCammon, who has been a penciled-in starter for Laura Harvey’s side since May and has flourished in the role, using her size to disrupt lanes and showcasing some pinpoint passing ability to unlock the Reign attack, such as in her two-assist performance at San Diego. In her absence the Reign have turned to veteran Welsh mid Angharad James-Turner, who brings a solid if not flashy defensive presence to the role, but doesn’t have the same eye for springing attacks.
On the Bay FC side, midseason acquisition Kennedy Fuller has similarly been a key part of a young midfield group, bringing tenacity and a nose for the ball. The 19-year-old is a key chance creator and wins a lot of aerial duels for her team. In their first game without Fuller last weekend, Bay adjusted their tactics to compensate – adding a second defensive midfielder, dropping their wide forwards back a half-band, and starting veteran Italian midfielder Cristiana Girelli in the 10 role behind Lema.
Load management ahead of midweek games
With only eight games remaining, every is point critical as Bay FC pursue an ever narrowing path toward a playoff spot and the Reign fight to stay above the playoff line with several teams just a few points behind them. Complicating things this week is that both teams have midweek road games where they will finally catch up to the rest of the league in total games played.
For the Reign this challenge is particularly acute, as their Wednesday game is at Angel City, followed by a difficult weekend game at altitude in Denver. Going into this weekend, the three teams are only separated by four points and each plays the other two over the next eight days, essentially making every one of those matches critical six-point affairs.
Will Laura Harvey and Bay FC coach Emma Coates go with their strongest possible lineups tomorrow, or will we see some rotation to keep players fresh for crucial upcoming games? The Reign have scored a lot of early goals this year (16 of their 27 goals have come in the first 30 minutes of games), so pushing hard and taking another first-half lead could allow Harvey to make early subs to keep starters fresh.
“Honestly, the most important game is tomorrow and then the next most important game will be LA,” Harvey said in her pregame comments when asked about looking at the big week ahead. “We've got to look at it like that. We did a little bit of roster rotation with Louisville and Kansas and I thought that that was fine. So we may do a little bit, but we're putting a team out that we believe can go and beat Bay.”
Kit matchup
Injury / Availability Report
Seattle Reign
Pending league availability report
Bay FC
Pending league availability report
How to watch
Seattle Reign kicks off against Bay FC at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, September 12. The match will stream globally on NWSL+.
