Fort Lauderdale, FL (October 22, 2026) – Despite a dominant first half, the Ascent struggled to find their finishing touch and were held to a scoreless draw by Fort Lauderdale United in Florida.
Sydney Martinez made two key second half stops to preserve her third straight shutout which is her seventh total on the season.
The Ascent were on the front foot from the jump and nearly broke through six minutes in when a Jill Aguilera corner was punched by Haley Craig right to Mia Corbin on the right corner of the six-yard box. Corbin settled and fired, but stung the cross bar as things remained tied.
The Ascent came close again five minutes later, when Rylee Baisden intercepted a pass in the right half space. The ball worked its way to Mackenzie George who slipped Baisden in behind the backline, but her cheeky outside of the boot attempt was saved by a diving Craig.
Lily Nabet almost scored her first goal of the season in the 16th minute, when Audrey Coleman received a feed from Corbin and darted towards the endline on the left side. Coleman pulled the ball back to Nabet whose shot was deflected above the crossbar.
The Ascent kept knocking on the door and forced a double save out of Craig in the 25th minute. George fed Baisden a through ball in behind that the forward collected before sending a low-driven shot that forced a diving save. The rebound fell to Shea Groom in the center of the box who tried picking out the right corner, but another diving effort from the Fort Lauderdale keeper kept the Ascent off the scoreboard.
Despite a dominant first half that saw the Ascent win 11 corners to Fort Lauderdale’s none and attempt 13 shots to two for the hosts, the game entered the half scoreless.
Fort Lauderdale settled into the game and created their first scoring chance in the 61st minute. Farrah Walters sent a diagonal ball towards the back post that Abi Hugh first touch volleyed on frame, but Martinez caught the attempt to put out the danger.
Martinez was called into action again in the 74th minute. Hugh sent a diagonal cross from the left flank that was flicked on by Kelsey Oyler, but the Carolina keeper was quick to react to snag it.
Substitute Ava Cook came inches away from finding a winner in the first minute of stoppage time when fellow sub Riley Parker passed to her on the edge of the box. Cook turned and tried to pick out the lower left corner but the shot flew just wide. Cook almost scored off of a rebound two minutes later, but Craig made a nice reaction save to preserve a draw for the hosts as the match finished 0-0.
The top-of-the-table Ascent return to American Legion Memorial Stadium on Saturday, October 31 when Lexington SC comes to town on Howl-O-Ween. You can buy your tickets here.
POST-GAME SOUND
Head Coach Philip Poole on his feelings about the match:
“A very, very dominant first half. One where we know we’ve got to finish several of those chances. Credit to Fort Lauderdale, they hung in there and made a couple of adjustments in the second half. I still think we had three or four very good chances in the second half. But at this stage of the season, a point on the road is one that we’ll take and move on.”
Poole on the decision to sub B Hylton on for Shea Groom, who was on a yellow, at half:
“We want to make sure we manage people’s yellows and cautions at this stage of the season. Obviously, B has been playing really well, and B was looking for a chance, so it gave us the opportunity to give her that chance she’s deserved. I thought we had our moments, certainly early in the second half, but B seemed to get in a groove and started to connect passes. So yeah, good experience and important minutes for B.”
Mia Corbin on the feelings post-game:
“I would say our overall feeling after the game is togetherness. A point on the road is still success for us. Every game matters at this point so we’re going to keep working back in the office. We’re excited to be back at home with a big game ahead.”
Audrey Coleman on dominating the first half, but having no goals to show for it:
“We just need to be more clinical in those moments. We created such great attacking moments and then it just takes that extra 1% focus of finishing it off into a goal.”
