by Andrea Gardner
Staff Writer
After 120 minutes, 59 shots on goal, and hardly enough daylight to see the ball, the University of La Verne women’s soccer team came off the field smiling Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over Redlands.
The Leopards dominated the first half, though in the words of Head Coach Wendy Zwissler they could not “connect their passes.”
Redlands played mostly defense in the first half, crossing into La Verne territory only a handful of times, but despite La Verne’s numerous shots on goal, they found themselves in a scoreless tie with the Bulldogs at halftime.
“We weren’t expecting them to be as physical as they were,” said junior mid-fielder Jacqui Zwissler.
In the second half, La Verne resumed its control of the game, giving Redlands little chance to score, though the Bulldogs found an opportunity and made it count, taking the lead nine minutes into the second half.
“They [Redlands] were playing good hard soccer,” said Coach Zwissler. “We expected them to be tough, but we didn’t expect this.”
La Verne promptly came back with a goal by Jacqui Zwissler that sailed over the goalie’s head out of her reach, tying the score 1-1.
The Leopards then began frantically trying to score, shooting numerous times, but were unable to get past Redlands’ goalie, Eda Canales.
When the second half ended, overtime began, with La Verne going full force toward the Redlands goal.
With less than five minutes left in the first half of overtime, Jacqui Zwissler scored again for the Leopards, giving the women the lead for the first time in the game.
Redlands changed goalies at the halfway mark of overtime, moving Canales into the center forward position in hopes of tying the score.
With daylight dwindling, the ball became harder to see, though that posed little problems for the Leopards, who scored quickly with their final goal shot by Jacqui Zwissler, assisted by junior defender Ana Delgado, which sealed the win and let the women breathe a sigh of relief.
“We didn’t mentally prepare for this game. If we would have tied Redlands, we would have been out of the running for a slot in the playoffs,” said senior mid-fielder Wendy Rockenbaugh. “We were getting a little worried so we turned it on.”
While Coach Zwissler felt it was good that her team came back from behind to win, she did not feel the team played to its potential.
“We almost blew our chance. We are lucky,” she said.
The Leopards are preparing for their final game of the regular season against Chapman, Sunday at 11 a.m.
“We have to beat Chapman, but if we play like this, we’re dead,” said Coach Zwissler.
Coach Zwissler assessed Chapman’s team, saying “I think they’re good; We scouted them and they scouted us, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
With its record of 15-2-1, the team still has a shot at the national playoffs.
“We won’t have a chance if we lose to them (Chapman),” said Coach Zwissler.
Asked what she learned from the Redlands game and taking into the Chapman game, Zwissler said, “Not to take a team too lightly.”
