Akide scores in Spirit debut Atlanta held off San Diego, 3-2, in preseason action in El Paso, Texas, despite the addition of discovery player Mercy Akide to the Spirit. Akide, Nigeria’s star attacking midfielder/forward, scored the Spirit’s final goal in the 89th minute. The March 11 match drew 3,116 fans to the Socorro Activities Complex, where Homare Sawa’s 71st-minute strike gave Atlanta the win. The Beat’s Kerry Cragg played a long ball to the Japanese international, who chipped Spirit goalkeeper Jaime Pagliarulo from 20 yards out. U.S. midfielder Shannon MacMillan had given the Spirit a 1-0 lead in the 33rd minute, by converting a penalty kick awarded after Kylie Bivens took down Traci Arkenberg in Atlanta’s penalty area. Nikki Serlenga tied the match with her own penalty kick in the 59th minute, after San Diego’s Chinese defender Fan Yunjie brought down Kerry Cragg. Marci Miller set up former Stanford star Emily Burt in the 69th minute, to put Atlanta up, 2-1. Akide launched a rocket into the upper left side of Briana Scurry’s goal to make the final score, 3-2. The 25-year-old Nigerian attended San Diego’s local tryout in February and impressed Coach Carlos Juarez, who made Akide his team’s fourth and final foreign player. “Mercy is an instant offensive threat,” he said. “She’s a skillful, smart player who has a lot of flair and creativity. She will definitely be a good compliment to our players.” CyberRays top Beijing The Bay Area CyberRays turned around a slow start to dominate Beijing FC in a 3-0 victory over the Chinese club on March 11. Roughly 2,000 spectators watched the match at the University of San Francisco. The C-Rays scored all three goals, including an own goal, over a four-minute span. “The field was obviously a little slow, a little bumpy,” CyberRays coach Ian Sawyers said. “But it was great. I was real happy with how we came out. All the Chinese teams are all incredibly organized. And the first 10 minutes they came at us pretty quickly and strong, and it took us about 10 minutes to figure them out. And then our players did a real good job of organizing and seeing where the players were coming from and plugging the gaps.” In the seventh minute, Brazilian striker Katia assisted Carey Dorn for the first goal, sending a cross from the right flank off of a defender and to the former Connecticut star, who slotted the ball home. Two minutes later, Ann Cook’s free kick found an unmarked Julie Murray in Beijing’s penalty area. The 5-foot-3 Australian forward headed in the C-Rays second goal. Katia, who played well despite a slight quadriceps pull in her right leg, set up the final goal in the 10th minute with another cross from the right side. The cross again hit a defender, but this time it deflected into Beijing’s goal before a diving Tisha Venturini could head it in. Sawyers praised Dorn and defensive midfielder Cook, who did much of the dirty work for Venturini and Brazilian playmaker Sissi. Dorn, who was a defender in all four years at UConn, had a strong performance on the right side of midfield against an albeit overmatched Beijing team. “Ann Cook did such a good job holding that midfield area and dominating,” Sawyers said. “Carey Dorn, she played outside back for [UConn]. But we did some physical testing and she did really well. we thought, Maybe she’d be able to get up and down [the field]. She proved us right. She was great today.” Breakers throttle Tigers German midfielder Bettina Wiegmann set up two goals as Boston trounced Clemson, 6-0, March 10 at UNC Greensboro. The Breakers had already beaten two other local universities as part of their preseason training camp — Duke, 3-0, on March 6, and North Carolina, 4-0, on March 8. Robin Confer converted an early penalty kick after she was fouled in the Clemson box. Wiegmann then assisted on goals by Meotis Erikson and Jen Tissue in the 55th and 60th minutes. Kristine Lilly, Sherice Bartling and Angela Hucles also tallied for Boston. Goalkeeper Tracy Ducar had two saves in the first half, while Danielle Dion was untested in the second half.