July 21 (2018)

Fire and Ice SC of St. Louis, the defending Women’s Premier Soccer League champion, loses, 1-0, to the Seattle Sounders Women in the WPSL semifinals in Norman, Okla. Playing in temperatures that top 100 degrees, Fire and Ice battles the unbeaten Sounders through a scoreless first half. Mireya Gray breaks the deadlock for the game’s only goal early in the 52nd minute. Fire and Ice’s Kirsten Crabtree nearly ties the game in the 71stminute, but her 35-yard drive crashes off the goalpost and then deflects off the crossbar. Based in the St. Louis Metro-East and competing in the WPSL, the second tier of U.S. women’s soccer below the National Women’s Soccer League, Fire and Ice had won the Heartland Conference title in 2018 with a regular-season record of five wins, three ties and no losses. Fire & ice goalkeeper Kelsey Dossey is named the Heartland Conference Defensive Player of the year and will go on to be a second-team All-SEC selection at the University of Missouri in 2018. Dossey is one of three players on the 2018 Fire and Ice squad who will sign professional contracts. Dossey will sign with Switzerland’s FC Laguno 1776, Carly Wickenheiser with Sweden’s Moron BK and Sarah Gorham with Sweden’s Lidkopings FK. Another member of the 2018 squad, Rachel Tejada, had been drafted by the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars in 2015 and appeared in two games that season. Fire and Ice will post a 9-3 record in 2019, but will have its 2020 campaign canceled when the WPSL calls off the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fire and Ice will cease operations after the 2022 season.