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On an unusually busy Wednesday game night in the National Women\u2019s Soccer League, two players made their returns to the field after long-term absences \u2014 Abby Dahlkemper from maternity leave and Taryn Torres from an ACL injury. <\/p>\n Though Bay FC fell 1-0 to visiting Gotham FC, Dahlkemper\u00a0earned an ovation from her hometown crowd in the\u00a084th\u00a0minute as she entered off the bench for defender\u00a0Joelle Anderson.\u00a0Activated from maternity leave\u00a0earlier in the day after welcoming her first\u00a0child in February, the substitution marked the defender\u2019s first NWSL appearance since June 2025. The\u00a0two-time\u00a0NWSL champion\u00a0and 2019 World Cup winner\u00a0became the fifth NWSL player to return from\u00a0maternity leave this season, and could be key to more on-field success for Bay. <\/p>\n \u201cI feel like just an immense amount of gratitude,\u201d Dahlkemper said postgame. \u201cI feel like when you have a child, your whole life kind of changes, and soccer isn\u2019t everything, but I\u2019m just appreciative to be able to come back and step back out on the field with this amazing group of girls. The club\u2019s been so so supportive in whatever I need, and that\u2019s helped me get back along the way, and I\u2019m just taking it day to day, and just hopefully, you know, one day I can look back with my son Eli and just hopefully make him proud.\u201d<\/p>\n Dahlkemper steps into a different team than last season, but expressed excitement for the young talent surrounding her like Claire Hutton (20 years old), Kennedy Fuller (19), Alex Pfeiffer (18), Heather Gilchrist (22) and Karlie Lema (23). She also acknowledged the important contributions of more veteran players like Italian international Cristiana Girelli.<\/p>\n \u201cI think just getting key players and building for now [and] for the future, but I think [also] players that want the ball, that are brave,\u201d Dahlkemper said of the shift in the team. \u201cI think this team\u2019s grown \u2026 from the beginning of the season till now, you know, we\u2019re able to go toe to toe with teams. And I think just being able to continue building off of performances and getting results and being hard to beat and taking pride in clean sheets, I think is going to be important too.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other side of the pitch, Gotham got Torres back. The 27-year-old midfielder made her first appearance since September 7, 2025, after recovering from an ACL injury suffered in her left knee during a training session. Since joining Gotham in 2022, Torres has made 48 appearances, including 22 starts, across all competitions for Gotham. She was on the Gotham FC rosters that won the NWSL Championship in 2023 and 2025, but missed the entire 2023 season with a different ACL injury and last season\u2019s playoffs with the injury that kept her out until Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
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