It was a foggy night at Jordan Field in early May. The Boston Breakers were playing the Chicago Red Stars, and their young second goalkeeper Abby Smith was in just her second game of the season and making a case for moving up from second to first.
Smith was drafted in the third round of the 2016 college draft, #27 overall, and she had already had a pretty good showing in holding Portland to 1-0 the game before. She was looking strong against Chicago too, until the 29’ when she came out of the goal on a long Chicago ball forward and something went critically wrong with her knee.