The Freedoms finished fourth in WTT, narrowly losing a standings tiebreaker for third place, with a record of 7 wins and 5 losses and missed the postseason for the first time since 2013.
In addition to Melo, the Freedoms left Taylor Townsend, Robby Ginepri, Liezel Huber, Asia Muhammad, Abigail Spears and Coco Vandeweghe unprotected.
[1] On July 6, 2016, the Freedoms announced they had signed Samantha Crawford to replace Daria Kasatkina, who had been selected to represent Russia at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
After the teams traded breaks in the final set of men's doubles, Guido Pella and Neal Skupski won a tiebreaker that forced extended play with the Freedoms leading 21–17.
[5] After two road wins to start their season, the Freedoms played their home opener against the Lasers on August 2, 2016, which included an Olympic send-off party for Wozniacki.
[8] The Freedoms returned home atop the WTT standings to face the winless Springfield Lasers, a team they had already beaten twice, on August 4, 2016.
[10] The Freedoms' West Coast trip proved to be a struggle, as they lost to both the Orange County Breakers and the San Diego Aviators and saw their record drop to 4 wins and 4 losses.
The Freedoms regained the lead at 10–9, when Martin and Broady took the mixed doubles set, 5–0, from Skupski and McHale, who had substituted for María Irigoyen, after the Empire fell behind, 0–3.
McHale and Irigoyen won 21 of the 32 points played against Broady and Crawford in the women's doubles set for a 5–1 victory that gave the Empire a 14–11 lead.
The five-time defending WTT champions won the first three sets to gain a 15–9 lead before exacting their revenge for the home loss they suffered at the hands of the Freedoms.
[15] On August 12, 2016, the Freedoms hosted the Orange County Breakers, who entered the match with 8 wins and 2 losses and having already clinched a spot in the WTT Finals.
[16][17] Despite winning to stave off elimination, the Freedoms postseason aspirations vanished, when the San Diego Aviators defeated the Empire, 24–16, to clinch the second spot in the WTT Finals.
Since the teams split their two regular-season meetings, the tie for third place in the standings was broken based on games won in those head-to-head matches, which favored the Kastles, 42–41.
[20] With the California Dream franchise terminated by WTT, the Freedoms were the only returning conference championship loser from 2015, and selected third from the bottom (fourth) in each round of the draft.
References:[2][3][32][33] Notes: Players are listed in order of their game-winning percentage provided they played in at least 40% of the Freedoms' games in that event, which is the WTT minimum for qualification for league leaders in individual statistical categories.