SportsSoccer

Women tripped up by Redlands

After gaining possession of the ball from Pomona-Pitzer’s Becky May (No. 9), Amy Quesenberry of La Verne (No. 18) headed straight to the box for a shot. After going into overtime during the Sept. 22 game, the Leopards lost, 1-0. / photo by Reina Santa Cruz
After gaining possession of the ball from Pomona-Pitzer’s Becky May (No. 9), Amy Quesenberry of La Verne (No. 18) headed straight to the box for a shot. After going into overtime during the Sept. 22 game, the Leopards lost, 1-0. / photo by Reina Santa Cruz

Steven Falls
Sports Editor

The University of La Verne women’s soccer team fell to the University of Redlands, 2-1, Saturday at Farquhar Field in Redlands before battling to a 1-1 tie with Occidental College Wednesday evening in Los Angeles.

The Leopards (1-6-1 overall, 0-2-1 conference) battled much of the game with Occidental and fell behind on a late goal in the 66th minute.

The Leopards, determined for their first conference victory, scored in the 86th minute on a goal from sophomore forward Amber Lejay.

After two overtime periods, the game was unresolved and concluded in a 1-1 tie.

The team came up on the short end of the stick twice this week, losing, 2-1, to Redlands.

The Bulldogs from Redlands (7-1 overall, 3-0 conference) got on the board early in the first half when a cross kick was accidentally deflected by La Verne defenseman A.J. Taggart into her own net.

“It was an accident,” Taggart said. “I felt bad, especially since the score ended up being 2-1.”

La Verne struggled to advance the ball offensively in the first half, mostly due to a pumped up, stifling defense from the Bulldogs. As a result, the Leopards expended much of their energy sustaining offensive attacks from their counterparts.

The Bulldogs fell upon numerous opportunities of scoring of their own throughout the first half, but were unable to convert due to the excellent play of La Verne sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Britt.

“La Verne’s goalkeeper had an impressive game and kept her team in contention the whole match,” said Redlands head coach Suzette Soboti.

Redlands missed on a key opportunity with one minute remaining in the first half when senior midfielder Alison Timms’ shot caromed off the top of the cross bar.

Overall, La Verne was able to completely neutralize the potent offensive attacks of Redlands, and found itself trailing a miniscule 1-0 after one half of play.

The difference between halves for the Leopards in this game was like comparing night and day. La Verne came out with more energy and was obviously more aggressive.

“We just made some adjustments in our midfield and defense, which created a different look and attitude to the game,” said La Verne head coach Wendy Zwissler. “We asked our girls to move more quickly up the field to support and most importantly to relax and play with confidence.”

“We just needed to get our heads together,” said sophomore defenseman Mercedes Bermudez.

Whatever words of wisdom Zwissler preached at the half seemed to work with Bermudez. The sophomore punched in the game-tying goal just out of the reach of Redlands’ goalkeeper Meghan Cyr in the 74th minute of the game to bring the score to 1-1 with just over 16 minutes to play in the game.

“I didn’t even expect it to go in,” Bermudez said. “It was a perfect shot.”

The next 16 minutes of the game were a complete battle, but in the 89th minute, Redlands’ junior defenseman Taylor Olsen blasted home the go-ahead goal off of a rebound in front of the La Verne net to put her team ahead for good, 2-1.

“Taylor Olsen and Lauren Margetic worked hard to get in position for any rebounds and it happened that Taylor found it first,” Soboti said.

Again, La Verne had fell victim to an unconventional goal. This time, the free ball rebounded directly at Olson who put it home.

“The play caught us off guard,” Bermudez said. “We weren’t really expecting it.”

After the game, the Leopards appeared to be content with the effort they gave, and the progress they had made.

“We saw improvement in not only our field play, but our mental effort,” Zwissler said afterwards.

“We were happy with our play, it was a dogfight all the way to the end,” Bermudez said. “It was just one of those games.”

ULV resumes SCIAC action Saturday against Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks.

Steven Falls can be reached at sfalls21@msn.com.

Steven Falls
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