Carolina Ascent’s Sydney Martinez plays for club, country in 24 hours 

CAROLINA ASCENT

Carolina Ascent goalkeeper Sydney Martinez played in two games over a 22-hour span – a loss for Puerto Rico in the CONCACAF Women's Championships qualifier and a 1-0 win for the Climbers against Dallas in a Gainbridge Super League match..

On a cool, dry, and breezy evening, Sydney Martinez walked out to the pitch of Estadio Nemesio Díez in Toluca, Mexico, with her Puerto Rico national teammates to face El Tri Femenil in the penultimate match of Group A qualifying for the 2026 CONCACAF Women’s Championships. 

They were one of 29 teams across the region competing for just six spots, with the USA and Canada already qualified. Both Puerto Rico and Mexico were undefeated in their previous three games, but only the winner would advance to the tournament finals in Texas, beginning in November.

Twenty-two hours and 1,000 miles later, she would make a similar procession with the Carolina Ascent before their kickoff against the Dallas Trinity at the Cotton Bowl.

CONCACAF W Championship qualifier

The thinner air of Toluca, which sits at 8,700 feet above sea level – 1,500 more than Mexico City and a mile and a half higher than Charlotte – meant shots would come faster and perhaps dance more than she was accustomed.

Puerto Rico was good, but Mexico was better by far, easily the third-best team in the confederation after the USA and Canada. So the shots came, early and often, a seemingly nonstop barrage of 44 strikes, 29 from inside the box, across the 90 minutes. 

Martinez, 26, was in demand between the posts, making 15 saves on the 20 shots that were on target. A total of six found the net, including an unfortunate own goal headed in by one of her defenders.

“Every time we play Mexico, it's a battle,” she said. “It's always busy. I think every time we play, I get at least 15 to 20 saves.”

In any other group, Puerto Rico, captained by Martinez’s Ascent teammate Jill Aguilera, might have made the CONCACAF finals, but it wasn’t to be this year. Another Ascent player, Maria Tapia, 18, also played 87 minutes on the wing. 

“Mexico, U.S., Canada, they're all up there,” Martinez said. “They're all amazing teams, and they have the resources and everything. They're top-level teams. I mean, we're ranked like 70-something.”

The USA is second in the most recent FIFA rankings, with Canada ninth and Mexico 27th. Puerto Rico is 77th. All three have been influential for Las Boricuas in the qualifiers, especially Aguilera, 28, who led the team in scoring with nine goals across four matches. She netted four against St. Lucia in a 7-0 win in December, three in a 10-0 crush of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in February, and a brace in a 9-0 dispatch of the U.S. Virgin Islands in March.

Tapia scored her first international goal in that match as well. Aguilera was the only Puerto Rican player named to the Best XI, the all-tournament team of qualifiers.

Neither Martinez nor Aguilera, who both played all 90 minutes in Toluca, had time to ponder what might have been as they packed their gear and headed to a hotel on the grounds of Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, over an hour away. They were booked on a 7 a.m. flight to Dallas, a trip that would be just under three hours in the air. 

“I got us a hotel room at Mexico City Airport, because they had us just staying in Toluca that night,” Martinez said on Wednesday. “But I was like, we want to get as much sleep as we possibly can, because Jill and I were both flying to Dallas. So we got about four hours of sleep thereabouts.” Tapia was not on the roster for Dallas, so she would be returning directly to Charlotte.

Game two a fight for the playoffs

Twenty-four hours and 1,000 miles later, Martinez marched onto the pitch at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas with her Carolina Ascent teammates. Given the greater toll on her body as a field player, Aguilera was rested.

“It was a very difficult game for Puerto Rico, and a very difficult game physically for Jill,” Ascent coach Philip Poole noted. “So that made the decision with Jill. With Marti, it's a little bit different being a goalkeeper. We talked about plan A and plan B, and we had it planned all along.” 

It would be another busy night for Martinez as she faced 24 Dallas shots, 14 inside the penalty area. The Rincon, Georgia, native, who came to Charlotte from Brooklyn FC before the season, was a wall, saving all six on target. 

“There was maybe one (shot) that would have surprised me, that wasn't a predictable read,” Martinez said. “There may have been one. But other than that, the defense did great in making shots predictable and readable.”

Asked if it was more physically or mentally taxing after the hectic match in Mexico, Martinez said: “It was both for me. I flew into Dallas that morning on so little sleep. Flying is a player's worst enemy, in my opinion. I could go through a hard couple of days in training, but putting me on a plane and then having to play later today is like the hardest thing for me.”

Said Poole: “We know we're asking a lot from Marti, but sometimes you’ve got to ask a lot to get a lot, and you’ve got to make sure that she knows that we believe in her. And I think to do that, to play two games in 12 hours, and to come and have a performance like that shows her quality.”

Team defense

She had greater help in Dallas than she had the day before. The Carolina defense would be called upon to make 34 clearances, compared to 14 for the Trinity. In Aguilera’s place at left back, Brianna Martinez – no relation – had a stellar performance.

While she doesn’t bring the same offensive flair as Aguilera, who led the league in assists last season while also being named Defender of the Year, Martinez was a firefighter in Dallas, putting out potential combustions throughout the 90 minutes. This clean sheet was arguably the hardest earned in the team’s short history.

The Ascent put two of eight shots on target, but the Dallas keeper, Tyler McCamey, would stop only one.

Poole knew it was going to be a tough game after the Trinity had been beaten 3-0 by Brooklyn the week before. 

“They got smashed the week before, uncharacteristic for Dallas,” he said. “So we talked all week about how we know we're going to have to go on there and weather some storm, because we know they're a good team.” 

Even with the lopsided shooting stats, Poole, noting incursions by Mackenzie George, Tyler Lussi, and Brianna Martinez, felt his side was more dangerous.

“I still think we had the best, if not three, the best two chances outside of the goal.”

Poole said the match was the opposite of their last trip to Dallas in December, where Carolina dominated (22-5 on shots) but lost 1-0.

The game winner, the goal that would lock the Ascent into the Gainbridge Super League playoffs for the second straight season of the circuit’s two-year history, came in the 89th minute. The Climbers’ leading scorer, Rylee Baisden, notched her fifth goal with a header, crashing the middle of the goalmouth to connect on Addisyn Merrick’s driven cross from the right.

The win lifted the Ascent to one point behind second-place Lexington, and five behind leaders Sporting JAX, though both still have a game in hand. Those teams meet Saturday. The Ascent will take on Tampa Bay Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. with the potential to make gains. The match will be streamed live on Peacock.

Though they’ve already clinched a playoff spot, getting into the top two will guarantee at least one home playoff game.

Martinez has now started the last eight games for the Ascent and nine total. Her first start had come in September, a 4-3 loss to Sporting JAX at home. That interrupted a string of 16 starts by Meagan McClelland, last season’s GSL Golden Glove winner.

“Eight unbeaten and now playoff bound. Step one is in the books, and it feels incredible,” said Martinez after the Dallas game. “The goals ahead are simple – keep building momentum, stay hungry, play our brand of soccer, and take it one game at a time all the way to the championship. This group has shown what we’re capable of. Now it’s about finishing the job.”

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