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SAN DIEGO — A grueling month of May is just beginning for a Utah Royals squad that dropped the fifth match in its last six on Wednesday in San Diego.
"It's going to be hard to keep our chins up after two losses back-to-back," head coach Amy Rodriguez said. "It's hard to face, but we have no other choice. And I'll continue to tell this group, 'We have to be resilient. We have to have our chins up and chests out.'"
The Wave were in the Royals' shoes as an NWSL expansion team just two years ago, but looked far ahead of a floundering Utah team that hasn't won since March 22 — its only win of the season.
Utah sits in last place in the NWSL with a 1-6-1 record and stays on the road for its next two matches in Chicago and North Carolina before returning to America First Field on May 25.
Wednesday's loss came in a familiar fashion, with the Wave drawing a penalty kick on a handball in the 35th minute and converting to go up 1-0 at Snapdragon Stadium. It was the sixth penalty conceded by the Royals in their last seven matches.
Handball called on Paige Monaghan and @UtahRoyalsFC concedes its SIXTH penalty in eight matches pic.twitter.com/4vPEKFWSZY
— Caleb Turner (@calebturner23) May 9, 2024
"I have never heard of six (penalty kicks) in seven games," Rodriguez said. "It's rough and we've taken a long look at why these (penalty kicks) are occurring, and I think tonight's PK was unavoidable."
Utah managed to win the possession battle at 56% and put up seven shots to San Diego's eight, but it was the Wave that finished more clinical in front of goal with five shots on target to just two for the Royals.
"You don't get a ton of chances in the NWSL, so putting away the ones that we do have is going to be super important," rookie Ally Sentnor said. "I think if we could just execute on some of the chances that we have we're going to be in a much better position."
Makenzy Doniak scored in the 77th minute to secure the Wave's franchise-record third consecutive home win, and 19-year-old UWSNT prodigy Jaedyn Shaw scored the penalty and assisted on the second goal in the win.
The Royals have a quick turnaround for the next match against the Chicago Red Stars on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. MDT on KMYU MyUtah.
