By OkayGoal 
Photo Credit: Chadd Cady-Imagn Images
The Royals and Wave kicked off the 2026 National Women’s Soccer League playoffs with a bang Friday night as Utah upset San Diego with a 1-0 road win in the first quarterfinal matchup. In their first postseason appearance in franchise history, Utah advance to the semifinals, where they will face the winner of Washington Spirit versus Portland Thorns.
The action began almost immediately, with goalkeeper Mandy McGlynn making the first of many outstanding saves five minutes in, denying Melanie Barcenas from point-blank range. On the other end, Paige Cronin forced an acrobatic save out of Sandra Paños shortly before making a goal-line block to stop a chaotic flurry of Wave chances.
Half an hour in, Utah were the first to take advantage of the game’s myriad chances. The play started with the ball in McGlynn’s hands, advanced up the pitch by Jameese Joseph dribbling up the middle through space, then the cutback assist from Cloé Lacasse was brilliantly controlled and finished by Kiana Palacios. Lacasse’s assist was her 11th of the season but her first since August 29, after which she only scored one goal in eight games.
San Diego continued to create numerous opportunities, requiring all Royals players to contribute to defending in the box. McGlynn made another notable save in the 61st minute, quickly getting to the ground to stop a shot that almost caught her wrong-footed as it was deflected off her defender. Roughly 15 minutes later, McGlynn made another outstanding stop on a looping ‘shross’ from Gia Corley.
Utah entered the game as the underdogs several times over. The No. 7-seeded Royals went into the home of the No. 2 seed having never beaten or even drawn the Wave, losing their six previous meetings. San Diego were undefeated in their last eight regular season games (seven wins, one draw) while Utah went 2-3-2 (W-L-D). With this result, the Wave lost their fourth straight playoff game after winning their first postseason match against Chicago in 2022.
