The Missouri Reign played its final home game of the 2025 Women's Professional Soccer League season, falling 2-1 to the Union KC Division II squad.

After neither team scored for nearly the whole first half, Union broke the 0-0 tie with a great pass by Sophia Mir to Hailey Scheuer in the box in the 44th minute. At the 45 minute mark the team hailing from Overland Park, Kansas, tacked on its second goal on a shot by Reese Birch. Just like that the Reign trailed 2-0 going into the break.

The Missouri squad did not have much going its way in the first half. The Reign did not get many good shots on goal turning the ball over in its own half of the field and also not getting any looks on goal, despite KC not having a true goalie in net. Two girls rotated playing the position throughout the game. Coach Dakota Acock said he wished his team could've put more pressure on Union's goalie because of that, but credited the opposing defense for limiting their opportunities, especially in the first half.

"Their defense is quality," Acock said. "It was really hard to get in behind them and break their lines and get those shots. And I think an offside call over there, a shot over there, that kind of hurt us. We could have got three, but at the same time, they made it very difficult."

Acock was disappointed in how his squad ended the half, and stated they need to drive the ball up the field more, and not turn the ball over.

"We gotta understand that towards the end of the half we need to see if we can counter and get behind (their defense)," Acock said. "There's some things we've learned this year as a staff (and) as a playing group that we're gonna take into next year. It's been a year of growth."

The Reign squad that stepped onto the pitch on Tuesday was different than most of the season. They played a lot of their younger players, because the staff is all about developing its players.

"We have 45 or 50 players on the team," Acock said. "As we get later into the season we want to make sure that we have all those players showcased. We've got a very young and talented group and we're super excited about the future."

Girls like Dafne Gonzalez, Marina Lima, Alexandra Schneider and Lucy Elfrink are all names that played primarily on the Division II squad this season. Elfrink, a Hickman graduate and current Webster University sophomore, recorded the lone assist of the game for the Reign on a nice thru ball to recent high school graduate Amaura Austell in the 53rd minute.

Acock goes on to say his squad has about 8-10 players who have never played college soccer yet so they have a big learning curve and are facing the most dedicated college players in the nation, making it good for their development.

One of the most promising young pieces, who has seen more and more playing time recently, is Austell.

Austell's speed is a game changer for the Reign squad. She created many set pieces and goal scoring opportunities because of it. She created many yellow cards and spent some time on the synthetic turf thanks to the fouls committed by Union. Acock thinks highly of the Jefferson City product, who will attend Evangel University in the fall.

""I think she's great," Acock said. "I think the league is going to know about her, I think they already do know about her now and so they're gonna game plan for her."

In the WPSL, no player can do things on their own, requiring everybody to be in sync. This was evident in the lone goal for the home team.

In the second half, goalie Natalie Allison made save after save, keeping her team in the game. She should be quite comfortable out on that pitch, given she attends Columbia College, the home of R. Marvin Owens Field.

In the 55th minute the Reign should have tied the game. Central Methodist midfielder Joya Azzi found Austell who went up for a header. She got it up to Drury forward Reagan Hegarty for a 1-on-1 opportunity with the goalie. However, the main referee decided instead of playing the clear advantage, to call it back and issue KC's Hailey Crabb a yellow card for undercutting Austell on the header. The card was definitely warranted, but he could've came back and issued it after the goal.

The Reign again had another opportunity to tie the game in the 81st minute. Hegarty, a Lake St. Louis native, had a shot just over and wide of the net.

Acock is looking forward to what his girls do in the upcoming fall season at their respective colleges. At the end of the day the Missouri Reign is a developmental program, like the rest of the WPSL teams. He emphasizes this sentiment.

"Our number 1 stated goal is to make sure we have players that have success (at their program)," Acock said. "We want everybody that steps into our program to leave having grown as a player in our program and have that success."

He hopes his girls win starting positions or become key points of their team. That means that Acock and his staff have done their job.

The final game of the season is against Sunflower State FC, in a makeup game from June 10. Acock emphasized the roster will consist of a mix of the main squad and Division II and younger players, much like it was on Tuesday.