The road was unkind to Laura Harvey’s Royal and Black Army, coming off a pair of one-goal losses in Chicago and in Kansas City. Even more, the team sent star forward Megan Rapinoe and goaltender Hope Solo off to the US National Team camp in preparation for the Women’s World Cup, coming up in Canada this summer.
The lineup would shuffle a bit, with Haley Kopmeyer assuming the starter’s mantle between the pipes for Solo and Merritt Mathias moving from right wing – where she was replaced by Kiersten Dahlstream – to the left side vacated by Rapinoe. 
The midfield trio of Winters, Fishlock and Little remained unchanged, as did the back four of Elli Reed, Lauren Barnes, Kendall Fletcher, and Stephanie Cox in Coach Harvey’s 4-3-3.
The course correction to preventing the counterattack goals which the team yielded in the two road matches seemed to be “don’t give up the ball” with the Reign dominating possession and generating chances early, with Kiersten Dahlstream just pushing a pass from Kim Little wide in the 9th minute and Mathias unfortunate in finding the side netting in the 16th. The attack would continue, with wingbacks Reed and Cox joining the rush at times.
Merritt Mathias wrong-foots defender Alex Singer before crossing to Bev Yanez to open the scoring
In the 35th minute, the onslaught would draw first blood, with Mathias driving the left wing, tangling her defender at the edge of the box before finding Beverly Yanez at the top of the six-yard area. Yanez took the ball in stride and went bar-down with a strike which left Spirit keeper Kelsey Wys helpless to prevent the ball from rippling the twine.
A frightening moment left midfielder Jess Fishlock on the turf for several minutes before going off for medical attention in the 37th minute, when Fishlock jumped toward a ball in the area at the same time closing Spirit midfielder Christine Nairn landed on her right foot. Fishlock would return to the match and continue to be effective until yielding to Amber Brooks in the 79th minute, collecting an insurance goal on a feed from Kim Little in the 75th.
The second half would open much as the first did, but it took less time for the Reign to register another goal, this one a far-post cross from Little which found Mathias’ head.
It is said that a two-goal lead is the most tenuous of margins in sports, and after conceding, the Spirit regrouped and controlled play for much of the following twelve minutes as Crystal Dunn pressing the attack from the back threaded a ball to Joanna Lohman in a seam between Barnes and Fletcher which Lohman was able to slot home just past the reach of a diving Kopmeyer.
Haley Kopmeyer, steps into the limelight as Reign goalkeeper during the absence of US Women’s Team starter Hope Solo.
Demonstrating her readiness to inherit the starting position in the net in the absence of Solo, Kopmeyer had a few words for her defense, calmed the back four, and refocused the unit, only called upon to make one final save in the waning seconds, palming a rocket from Dunn safely over the crossbar.
With the score at 2-1, the Reign regrouped and returned to their gameplan, although with a touch less of the defiantly confident opening which marked the opening to both frames, and would cap the scoring in the 75th with Fishlock running onto a through-ball played by Little, sliding to tip the ball past Wys.
The Reign next head back on the road for a matchup with Sky Blue FC at Yurcak Field at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey before returning home for an NWSL match and a friendly one against the Chinese national team in their final tune-up for the World Cup.
Jess Fishlock, who provided an insurance talley in the 3:1 win over Washington
