Cal Lu tops women's soccer, 3-2
Campus Times
October 18, 1996
In last Saturday's 6-1 women's soccer victory over Redlands, junior
Kelly Perkins attempts to move the ball around Bulldog Marissa Santa Cruz
at Ben Hines field.
Capitalizing on on a 15 minute breakdown in La Verne's defense, California
Lutheran University defeated the visiting University of La Verne women's
soccer team 3-2 at home.
"I am happy with how my team played except for 15-20 minutes in the
second half," said head coach Wendy Zwissler, "It's a major letdown
when they score three goals."
In this, the second SCIAC meeting of these teams, La Verne sought to equal
the conference standings after losing to Cal Lu in overtime 2-1 at La Verne,
and also strengthen its bid for postseason play. Zwissler feels that this
loss had ensured that her team "won't be there."
"They [the team] won't bounce off it [the loss] easy, but they will,"
said Zwissler.
The first half of heated play was filled with exchanges across the field.
Lisa Thomas, senior, crossed the ball from the right side of the field to
the left side and the feet of sophomore forward Angel Mejico. Mejico drove
to the goal bringing the Cal Lu keeper, Amy Walz off her line, before letting
go with a shot. An open net goal was stopped by one of the Cal Lu defenders
who managed to head the ball out of play.
La Verne kept the ball on the Cal Lu side of the field and was rewarded
with a goal with 23 minutes left in the half. A La Verne throw-in was head
backwards to the goal by Mejico and traveled through several Cal Lu defenders
before finding the feet of Thomas at the center of the goal box. Thomas
charged the goal and and shot low left, giving La Verne the 1-0 lead.
"We needed to be switching the ball fast, keeping it low on the ground,
also more defensive slides," said coach Zwissler.
Cal Lu fought back showing the experience of five consecutive SCIAC championships
with four scoring opportunities. A Cal Lu breakaway was stopped by ULV keeper
senior Tiffany Hall. A takedown by junior fullback Amber Hall resulted in
a free kick outside the La Verne penalty box that went wide.
La Verne dodged another offensive attack when Kim Holeman slipped behind
the La Verne defense and challenged Tiffany Hall, who ended the attack by
deflecting her shot. The final Cal Lu chance for the half was also created
by Holeman who took a pass pushed through the La Verne line and shot wide
to the right.
The second half of play began with La Verne pushing the Cal Lu defense as
freshman halfback Kathy Bohlman passed the ball through to freshman forward
Michele Reyes who went one-on-one with Walz and tried unsuccessfully to
force the shot over Walz's 5'-11" frame.
With 40 minutes left in the second half, La Verne seemed to shift its focus
to defense to the delight of the Cal Lu team.
At 38 minutes a hard shot from the right side had to be deflected and was
finally cleared by senior full back Jamey Hesler. This began a Cal Lu offensive
onslaught that pulled both the ULV defense and offense into their end of
the field to ward off attacks.
A crossed ball from Holly Roepke would equal the score as Jill Simmer placed
a shot to the back of the ULV net that tied the score for the Regals with
25 minutes left in the half.
Roepke made the scoreboard five minutes latter taking a pass from Lara Philby.
Roepke shot from the outside left shot 18 yards away from the goal, the
shot rebounded off the right upward bar and into the back of the La Verne
net with 19 minutes left in the half.
The Cal Lu offense claimed junior fullback Kelly Perkins with 13
minutes left as Perkins was red carded for an illegal tackle on Deanna Luque
while she drove down the left side of the field.
Cal Lu's final goal came on a direct free kick outside the penalty area
when Lara Philby used the upward post to once again bounce the ball into
the back of the La Verne net.
La Verne did not give up the fight, returning to a solid passing game, Hall
with Jenny and Jacqui Zwissler moved the ball downfield where Jacqui shot
from the left side at 35 yards out.
Walz reached high from the ball as it traveled through her fingers and to
the ground where sophomore Alicia Raygoza collided with Walz, yet pushed
the ball into a slow roll towards the back of the net, for La Verne's final
goal of the game.
The 3-2 loss to Cal Lu takes Cal Lu's record to 8-0 in SCIAC and 12-2-0
overall. The La Verne women's team is 6-2 in SCIAC and 11-4-0 overall.
Tomorrow La Verne will travel to Pomona-Pitzer at 11 a.m.
"We are going to go out and try to play our hardest against Pomona,"
said Zwissler.