SportsSoccer

Women beat Chapman, lose playoff bid

Junior Jacqui Zwissler keeps her eye on the ball and continues to manuver it downfield, showing she has total control. The Lady Leos finished their season a half game behind their rivals Cal Lutheran in the SCIAC standings. / photo by Annette Gutierrez
Junior Jacqui Zwissler keeps her eye on the ball and continues to maneuver it downfield, showing she has total control. The Lady Leos finished their season a half game behind their rivals Cal Lutheran in the SCIAC standings. / photo by Annette Gutierrez

by Rosie Sinapi
Sports Writer

In the early afternoon, she was flying high after a 3-1 victory over the Chap­man Panthers. Hours later she was greeted with the phone call she had been waiting for all her life—a call offering her soccer team a bid to the playoffs.

Unfortunately for women’s soccer Head Coach Wendy Zwissler, the phone call did not go as expected. After a 16-2-1 overall season record, and 10-1-1 SCIAC record, the Leopards were shut out of a bid to the Division III playoffs.

“I was disappointed, but it wasn’t something I was totally surprised about. I am so naïve. I really thought they would take a team that had beaten another team. I didn’t think they’d take Washington University, who we had beat,”said coach Zwissler.

“I asked, ‘We have four teams in the California that can be the best in the nation and you’re not going to take them?’ and they said, ‘No.’”

Many students and faculty echoed coach Zwissler’s cry.

“I am just so happy to see how much everyone cared about us. We’ve gotten so many phone calls, it makes us feel like we aren’t just playing for ourselves,” she said.

The Leopards placed second in the SCIAC this the season, and even broke Cal Lutheran’s SCIAC winning streak when the team tied the Regals.

The Leopards’ final game had them facing the Panthers Sunday at La Verne, winning 3-1. Early in the match, Chapman had several opportunities to score, including a missed penalty shot.

The big break for the Leopards came from Angel Mejico. With 24:21 left in the half, Mejico shot from 18 yards up the middle to put the Leopards ahead, 1-0. Mejico had five shots on the day.

Keeping the ball in their possession throughout most of the first half, the Leos managed to pacify the Panthers due in part to strong defensive play.

“We’ve been practicing defense all week long,” said assistant coach Mary Campo. “We had our offensive players practice defense and our defense players fine tune.”

Campo also said that the Leopards had came off a sloppy game against Redlands and had learned from that experience.

When the second half began, the Leopards took immediate control of the game. Almost scoring in the first seconds on the half, ULV pressed deep into Chapman territory. La Verne intercepted the ball with 38:13 on the clock. Although junior Jacqui Zwissler missed the first goal, her sister Jennifer came back to score, making it 2-0.

Dragging after the initial goal, Chapman picked up its game and had the Leopards on the run. Sweeper Amber Hall was essential in keeping the Panthers down. With 30:44 on the clock, Chapman’s Cindy LeClair shoved pass Hall and kicked a goal from in front of the net, stunning freshman goalie Kim Marshel, bringing Chapman to within one, 2-1.

The Panthers attempted to rally, but to no avail, as key offensive players, the Zwisslers, and defensive player Wendy Rockenbaugh turned the tide for the Leopards.

Securing the victory, junior Ana Delgado scored from off the side to give the Leopards a 3-1 win in its last game of the season.

On the whole, the team succeeded in execution this year. Leading the team and SCIAC was Jacqui Zwissler, who had 124 shots for nine goals and 17 assists. The team’s co-captains also had a successful season—Jennifer Zwissler had 101 shots and 14 goals with eight assists, while junior Lisa Thomas had 53 shots with 12 goals and 6 assists.

Two keys to the team’s success were Marshel, who had 76 saves and only 17 goals scored against her, and Mejico, who had 99 shots, 10 goals and six assists.

The team scored 75 goals this year, holding its opponents to just 19.

As far as a turning point this season, Coach Zwissler points to the tie with SCIAC champs Cal Lutheran.

“We reached a plateau at that game and I think we will be there for a while,” she said.

“We are doing a lot of good things, but we just didn’t get that national bid this year.

“Whenever we were behind, we came back with intensity. That’s what I liked about this year’s team,” Coach Zwissler said.

She believes the team will be able to come back next season with a successful team, losing one senior, Rockenbaugh.

“I think next season is going to be good. It’s hard to match a 16-2-1 record. We are going to have a lot of pressure on us to do well now that we have proved ourselves.

“We still need to recruit. We don’t have a large bench as far as that goes. We have about six girls on the bench and once they are subbed in, that’s it.”

Rosie Sinapi, Editor in Chief
Rosie Sinapi
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Annette Gutierrez
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