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Racing Louisville FC defender Emily Fox was on Thursday among 11 players named to May’s National Women’s Soccer League Team of the Month as voted on by the NWSL Media Association, a collection of writers that cover the league on a consistent basis.

Out of the University of North Carolina, the No. 1 NWSL Draft pick Fox started at left back for Racing in all three of its games as the expansion club opened its inaugural season 1-1-1. The first two of those results both included clean sheets, a nod to Fox’s abilities defensively. But she’s known to get up and into Racing’s attack as well, offering plenty of pace.

“She’s been a fantastic acquisition,” coach Christy Holly recently said of Fox, also a young member of the U.S. Women’s National Team player pool. “The exciting thing is we know there’s so much more to her game.”

Racing Louisville FC continues its season at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, visiting Portland Thorns FC. Coverage will stream exclusively on the NWSL’s Twitch channel.

Here’s more on the latest Team of the Month…

GK – Kailen Sheridan (NJNY): Starting all three of NJ/NY Gotham FC’s games in May, Sheridan posted two shutouts and saved 94 percent of the shots she faced across the trio of matches, collecting a 2-0-1 ledger.

D – Caprice Dydasco (NJNY): Dydasco was rock solid in Gotham FC’s back line, appearing in every game and successfully winning more than 60 percent of her tackles while garnering an 83 percent pass rating.

D – Emily Fox (LOU): An integral piece of Racing Louisville FC’s defense, Fox made 11 clearances, intercepted five passes and won more than half of her challenges in the air to help the league’s newest team to a 1-1-1 record early in the regular season.

D – Phoebe McClernon (ORL): Playing in every minute of the Orlando Pride’s May campaign, McClernon tallied an assist in the team’s first goal of the regular season against Washington and successfully won over 70 percent of her tackles.

D – Carson Pickett (NCC): Pickett notched an assist in North Carolina’s 5-0 rout of Louisville and created scoring chances with 10 key passes and an 80 percent pass rating.

M – Debinha (NCC): The 2021 Challenge Cup MVP has carried her impressive campaign into the regular season, notching a goal and two assists in the Courage’s 5-0 win over Louisville. The forward’s two assists were also a league high throughout the month.

M – Crystal Dunn (POR): Dunn has been electric since she joined the Thorns last October, amassing 10 shots in four starts that culminated with a stellar goal in Portland’s 1-0 victory over Gotham FC.

M – Jess Fishlock (RGN): A perennial power for OL Reign, Fishlock showcased her playmaking ability in three starts in May, dishing out six key passes and completing 86 percent of tackles to give her team several quality scoring opportunities.

F – Sydney Leroux (ORL): Leroux contributed a pair of key goals for Orlando in May, notching the game-winner in the Pride’s opening match against Portland before scoring the opening goal in a 2-1 win over North Carolina.

F – Alex Morgan (ORL): Also May’s Player of the Month, Morgan led the league with a goal in each of Orlando’s four contests, including the team’s first goal of the regular season and the game-winner in the Pride’s 2-1 road win over North Carolina.

F – Mallory Pugh (CHI): Leading Chicago in scoring in May, Pugh kickstarted a pair of scoring chances in the Red Stars’ 2-0 win over Kansas City by assisting on each of her team’s goals. The forward also tallied a goal in Chicago’s 2-1 setback against Houston.

Lynn Family Stadium is ready to fully open for business.

Single game tickets and 5-match packs for remaining Racing Louisville FC home games — all to be played at 100% capacity inside the new Butchertown neighborhood venue — go on sale at 11 a.m. Wednesday via www.racingloufc.com/racingloufc/tickets or by calling (502) 568-2489 during regular business hours.

Additionally, the club can confirm tickets to The Women’s Cup go on sale June 15, with the in-season tournament bringing Champions League semifinalists FC Bayern Munich and Paris-Saint Germain to town.

The Women’s Cup will consist of an Aug. 18 doubleheader between Racing and the Chicago Red Stars of the NWSL along with a Bayern-PSG matchup. Winners meet to cap the Aug. 21 session with a third-place game preceding.

Fans are encouraged to visit TheWomensCup.world now to make a ticket reservation. Those with reservations will receive first right to select their seats once tickets go on sale.

Racing has opened its inaugural season 1-1-1 as an expansion team in the world’s best women’s soccer league, the NWSL, and plays away once more on Saturday against the Portland Thorns before returning home.

The ladies in lavender will host the Houston Dash (June 20) and North Carolina Courage (June 23) in their first games without attendance limits.

The Dash, winners of the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup tournament, feature on their roster U.S. Women’s National Team members Kristie Mewis and Jane Campbell along with Rachel Daly, who’s set to represent England at this summer’s Olympics.

The Courage pack arguably even more star power having recently added to their roster USWNT standout Sam Mewis. Lynn Williams and Jessica McDonald are familiar names, and Brazilian star Debinha has entered the discussion lately for world’s best player.

Later this season, visits to Lynn Family Stadium can also be anticipated by household American soccer names such as Megan Rapinoe (Sept. 4 vs. OL Reign), Carli Lloyd (Oct. 1 vs. NJ/NY Gotham FC) and Alex Morgan (Oct. 16 vs. Orlando Pride).

Racing has played to solid fan support thus far with 6,622 on hand for its season-opening draw May 15 against Kansas City. A crowd of 6,011 then saw the club register its first win May 21 over the Washington Spirit with Louisville native Emina Ekic scoring and assisting in the victory.

Thanks to official ticketing partner SeatGeek, fans can also search the resale market in the event of sellouts, meaning tickets are always available online at www.racingloufc.com/racingloufc/tickets.

Also home to the USL Championship’s Louisville City FC, Lynn Family Stadium has already captured Greater Louisville Inc.’s Silver Fleur-De-Lis Award; been named Business First Louisville’s Commercial Real Estate Deal of the Year; and featured as a nominee in StadiumDB.com’s Stadium of the Year competition.

The venue includes a number of fan-friendly features. There’s a state-of-the-art video board — second largest in Kentucky behind Churchill Downs’ massive screen — ideal seating close to the pitch, myriad food and drink options, solar-powered charging stations, a beer garden and a 72-foot bar at the facility’s open end believed to be the longest in the state.

At 100% capacity, the safe-standing supporter zones at either end of the pitch will make for a wall of support expected to provide Racing and LouCity a true home advantage.

If Racing Louisville FC coach Christy Holly knows anything about his No. 1 NWSL Draft pick, it’s that Emily Fox will arrive armed with questions following a 5-0 defeat Friday at NC Courage.

The defender led Racing through the lopsided defeat in touches, passes and tackles despite this being the University of North Carolina graduate’s seventh professional game across all competitions.

Good enough? Probably not for Fox.

“She’s brought a real good energy to the team,” Holly said. “She’s a fantastic young player and someone that’s really inquisitive and likes to know how she can become a better player.”

Fox played collegiately for powerhouse UNC, a regular national title contender. When she heard her name called in January to open the NWSL Draft, the 22-year-old was in camp at the highest level training with the U.S. Women’s National Team.

Her role with Racing has been multifaceted, much more than is traditional for a left back. That’s a credit to Fox’s pace that allows her to rove up the wing and even into the center of the field.

Against the Courage, in what was still a 1-0 game, Fox swept in to recover possession in North Carolina’s half to set up a 42nd-minute chance. In the 56th minute, all Courage right back Merritt Mathias could do to stop a Fox run was take her down with the type of tackle that warranted a quick yellow card from the referee.

“Obviously Foxy’s a great player for us,” said forward and vice captain Savannah McCaskill, who highlighted the combinations Fox has been able to make with left winger Yuki Nagasato “being a threat getting shots off. She’s definitely a bright spot for us going forward.”

“I try to look at our opponents and see what’s the best thing to do,” Fox added. “Whether that’s me dropping more, doing more combo play, playing balls early or sitting higher. I think for me it’s just reading the game. I obviously want to make my teammates look good. I want to connect. I want to pass. So just trying to get a rhythm and help everyone else look good.”

With 69 touches Friday, Fox made 35 successful passes and a trio of tackles. Nagasato added 22 successful passes, with the duo out-pacing their counterparts on the right side of the field.

While Fox hasn’t yet factored in a goal during the regular season, she made history on debut, sliding a long cross in behind the defense that led to Cece Kizer’s opening goal in the Challenge Cup against the Orlando Pride.

“She gives us a fantastic outlet on the left, but we also give her a bit of freedom to come in the central areas, too,” Holly said. “She’s been a fantastic acquisition. The exciting thing is we know there’s so much more to her game.”

And Fox will be asking all the right questions to raise it.

Thomas Costello covers the NWSL for Beyond Women’s Sports, which offers stories throughout the world of women’s professional and collegiate athletics. Follow Thomas on Twitter @1ThomasCostello.

For the first time in Racing Louisville FC’s young history, the club came away from a match without many clear positives following Friday’s 5-0 away defeat to the North Carolina Courage. Still, here’s a bit of what we learned from Game 3 of the 2021 NWSL regular season.

A partnership with potential

Rookie fullback Emily Fox has grabbed the league’s attention in her short time as a pro, but that isn’t the entire story down the left side. Against the Courage, forward Yuki Nagasato and Fox showed the potential of their partnership.

Fox put Racing in the best areas offensively. She was difficult enough to stop that Courage fullback Merritt Mathias had to aggressively tackle her, picking up a yellow card, to prevent a breakaway when the game was still in reach. It simply continued a trend in which Fox is confirming her No. 1 draft selection in how much ground she covers and what she creates.

Nagasato helped Fox by calming the proceedings down for Racing. The former Chicago Red Stars standout has adapted her play to match what Louisville needs. Against the Courage, she maintained possession for Racing, not simply focused on moves that would lead to a goal or assist. Multiple times in the match, she took on double teams and won, moving the ball forward into the attacking third.

This doesn’t show up on paper, but Nagasato gave her teammates time to find open positions on the field. And overall, this pair’s growing chemistry resulted in a combined 73 completed passes too compared to 23 on the right.

Lessons to learn

Looking just at the final score line doesn’t tell this game’s story, as Racing bent in the first half, conceding a goal, but didn’t break until the final 45 minutes.

The Courage ended the first half with 14 shots. Four were on target, and another four were blocked. It was a performance that looked familiar to last week in what wound up a victory over the Washington Spirit.

“I felt we played pretty well in the first half,” said midfielder Savannah McCaskill. “Going into the second half, we kinda lost our quality. We didn’t continue to defend as a unit.”

Once the first second half Courage shot went in, they added two more in the next 12 minutes. For Louisville, that’s a point where the film should offer a number of lessons.

“It’s not fun,” Fox said. “I do think that losing, especially this way, is a big learning opportunity. On past teams (I’ve been on) this has happened, but as an entire team it benefits them.”

A strong team mentality

Friday’s loss doesn’t look great on the scoreboard or the standings, but it goes a long way in the growth of this team. Post-match, both Fox and McCaskill all echoed the same thing: that there are no excuses for how they played.

They could have listed all the names of international talents faced on the opposing team — among others, the Courage just added Sam Mewis back to their lineup — but they instead focused on themselves.

“I think tonight’s game will be very very beneficial for us,” said coach Christy Holly. “We’ll be able to reflect and push forward.”

Perhaps it’s the proper sort of test as Racing prepares for another tough trip to play the recent Challenge Cup winner, the Portland Thorns, on June 5.

“The message stays the same,” said Holly. “Last week, we didn’t get carried away with the win, and tonight we won’t get carried away with the loss.”

Seven games across competitions into its inaugural campaign, Racing Louisville FC finally showed the difficulty of competing as an expansion club in what’s arguably the world’s best women’s soccer league. It took one of the world’s top teams to force it, too.

NC Courage — NWSL champions in 2018 and 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a regularly played season last year — rolled to a 5-0 victory Friday night over visiting Racing at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.

International stars Lynn Williams and Debinha both scored in a game that also marked the NWSL return of Sam Mewis, who earlier this year during a stint with England’s Manchester City was ranked the No. 1 player in the world by ESPN.

“You come down here — you play against a team that’s one of the best teams in the world the last number of years,” said Racing coach Christy Holly. “It’s a great opportunity to step up, or sometimes you feel the nerves on playing on such a level.

“…Tonight we got a good lesson on ruthlessness from the opposition. We’ll take that. We’ll take those lesson on board. We’ll absorb these lessons, and we’ll add it to our game.”

Racing struggled to mount much of an attack throughout a game in which weather factored, with increasingly chilly temperatures giving way to some heavy rain. In all, the league newcomers were out-shot 28-6 with the Courage controlling 60.8% of possession.

There were standout individual moments for the visitors, such as rookie fullback Emily Fox’s work up the left side as she led Racing with 68 touches and made a team-high 3 tackles. In the 72nd minute, forward Savannah McCaskill also tried a shot from distance that had to be poked over the bar by Carolina’s keeper.

The hosts largely controlled proceedings, however, scoring early when captain Abby Erceg headed in a seventh-minute short corner — and then often with four more goals in the second half.

“It’s a young team, and we’re going to have to learn from these types of experiences,” McCaskill said. “They are one of the best teams in the conference and have some really great players, but we’re not satisfied with this. This is not going to be who we are, but it’s gotta be a learning moment. We have to continue to grow and get better and put together the pieces for the next game.”

Debinha, who secured her goal in the 68th minute, also assisted Williams in the 63rd. Hailie Mace rounded out scoring after subbing on, scuffing a grounded shot into the back of the net in the 75th minute before completing her brace in the 90th.

This result came in contrast to last Friday’s 2-0 Racing win, marking the franchise’s first-ever victory. That followed a season-opening draw against Kansas City that temporarily saw Louisville atop the NWSL table.

“The message stays the same,” Holly said. “Last week, we didn’t get carried away with the win. Tonight, we’ll not get carried away with the loss. We’ll sit down, reflect, and we’ll go again.”

Dating back to the preseason Challenge Cup tournament, Racing also lost to the Courage, with Friday night’s goals the first since that April 26 game — a span of 289 minutes. Until this North Carolina rematch, the new club had yet to be defeated by more than a goal.

Racing has a bit more than a week to regroup before traveling to play another traditional NWSL power, the Portland Thorns, on June 5.

Game Summary: North Carolina Courage vs. Racing Louisville FC

Venue: WakeMed Soccer Park

Kickoff: 7 p.m.

Player of the Match: Emily Fox

Scoring

Racing Louisville FC (0, 0, 0)

North Carolina Courage (1, 4, 5)

Goals

North Carolina Courage:

7’ Erceg (assisted by Pickett)

63’ Lynn Williams (assisted by Debinha)

68’ Debinha (assisted by McDonald & Pickett)

75’ Mace (assisted by Debinha)

90’ Mace (assisted by Ryan Williams)

Stats Summary: North Carolina Courage / Racing Louisville FC

Shots: 28 / 6

Shots on Goal: 11 / 1

Fouls: 8 / 5

Offside: 4 / 1

Corner Kicks:  6 / 1

Saves: 1 / 5

Lineups

North Carolina Courage: 1 – Casey Murphy, 4 -Carson Pickett, 7 – Diane Caldwell, 6 – Abby Erceg, 11 – Merritt Mathias (76’ 13 – Ryan Williams), 19 – Havana Solaun, 10 – Debinha (82’ 21 – Cari Roccaro), 8 – Denise O’Sullivan, 5 – Samantha Mewis (71’ 16 – Hailie Mace), 14 – Jessica McDonald (76’ 23 – Kristen Hamilton), 9 – Lynn Williams (82’ 27 – Brittany Ratcliffe)

Subs not used: 3 – Kaleigh Kurtz, 2 – Taylor Smith, 25 – Meredith Speck, 99 – Katelyn Rowland

Racing Louisville FC: 1 – Michelle Betos, 3 – Erin Simon (54’ 14 – Nealy Martin), 18 – Kaleigh Reighl, 11 – Emily Fox (86’ 27 – Vanessa Kara), 15 – Brooke Hendrix, 2 – Lauren Milliet (68’ 33 – Jorian Baucom), 17 – Yuki Nagasato, 22 – Katie McClure (54’ 12 – Emina Ekic), 7 – Savannah McCaskill, 8 – Freja Olofsson, 5 – Cecelia Kizer

Subs not used: 12 – Sinclaire Miramontez, 20 – Cheyna Matthews, 21 – Shelby Money, 23 – Katie Lund

Discipline Summary

NC Courage: Mathias (yellow) 56’

Referee: Matthew Franz

Assistant Referees: Jeremy Smith & Caleb Fearing

Fourth Official: Shawn Tehini