Jaydelle Herbert
Staff Writer
The women’s soccer team faced a sudden 3-2 defeat against the Chapman Panthers on Saturday.
From the beginning of the second half, La Verne held onto a 2-2 tie until Chapman’s senior midfielder and defender Riley Pidgeon executed a quick shot inside the net in the last six minutes of the game.
Her senior teammate, midfielder and forward Anna Montemor, lifted a fast assist near the middle of the penalty box for Pidgeon to score faster than La Verne sophomore goalkeeper Evelyn Saldivar could save the ball from going inside the net.
Senior defender Gizzel Sulca played most of the second half and said La Verne’s defense could not stop Chapman from scoring because of mechanical errors.
“It ultimately came down to simple mistakes,” Sulca said. “Unfortunately in soccer all you need is just that one mistake to happen and a goal can easily come from that.”
In the 22nd minute, Chapman subbed in sophomore midfielder Leila Mukaigawa, who shot an unassisted goal high above Saldivar’s reach inside the goal post.
Two minutes after the Panthers secured the first goal of the game, the Leopards’ offense applied pressure on the Panthers’ defense and fought to get a closer shot attempt.
Sophomore midfielder Brianna Wong scored her first goal of the season with an assist by freshman defender Miranda McGarry to tie the score at 1-1 in the 26th minute.
“I honestly didn’t know it was going to go in because of the angle that I was at, I thought the defender got it already,” Wong said. “But once I realized we got that goal I was super, super excited.”
Both teams desperately took advantage of the opportunities they were given to score, but the 1-1 tied score only lasted for two more minutes.
Chapman’s sophomore midfielder Ashley Wielenga kicked a long goal in the 28th minute to give the Panthers a 2-1 lead going into the half.
Within the first 40 seconds of La Verne’s first possession in the second half, junior midfielder and forward Michelle Benavides snuck a goal in the bottom left corner of the net to tie the score, 2-2.
“It was important for me personally,” Benavides said. “It brought a sense of confidence for myself as a player that I can do this and how I am a good player. I just felt really good that I was able to do that for the team.”
Benavides said the early goal in the second half came from the pep talk her coach gave the team at halftime.
“We came into the second half really fired up,” Benavides said. “We knew that this was a game that we could win. We applied really good pressure in those first couple of seconds and won the ball. We were just really focused and hungry for that goal. I had a man coming on my back, and knew I had to shoot it one time.”
Both teams fought to obtain possession of the ball throughout the rest of the second half. But Chapman’s 15 fouls and La Verne’s nine fouls continued to slow the momentum of the game.
“After we tied the game, our biggest struggle was that we weren’t playing our game calm and composed,” said freshman midfielder Alyssa Moran, who assisted Benadives’ goal early in the second half. “We were really frantic.”
Junior midfielder Chloe Robinson said she believes the fouls disrupted the way the team plays, which is keeping their composure and staying respectful throughout the game.
“When more fouls are committed from the other team, sometimes we do lose our composure a little bit. We begin to play their style instead of our style,” Robinson said.
One foul the referee did not call was against Chapman that resulted in Robinson being taken out of the game due to an injury.
“As I was going up for the header, one of Chapman’s players came behind me and pushed me into one of her teammates who were in front of me,” Robinson said. “My head went into the back of the other girl’s head. For a few seconds, I felt a little dizzy. But thankfully it wasn’t a concussion. I was just confused for a few seconds.”
The Leopards tried to hold onto their tie as long as they could until Pidgeon got past La Verne’s defense and scored, in the 82nd minute.
Wong said one reason La Verne’s offense struggled to score on free kick opportunities was because of Saturday’s lineup.
“We have a certain girl who takes the free kicks and she wasn’t able to play last night,” Wong said. “So it was different girls taking the free kicks and I think it was a little hard for us to adjust since we have never practiced with these people taking free kicks.”
Robinson has a different explanation for why their offense could not score with the opportunities they had.
“Honestly, I think it’s a lack of confidence,” Robinson said. “We have been practicing so many free kicks and corner kicks at practice. Girls are finishing and scoring amazing goals in practice. But when it comes to the game, it’s hard for us to get out of our heads and really execute with our full potential.”
Sulca said the team needs to maintain a positive mindset and stay focused during their next conference game.
“We have to leave the game we played this past Saturday on the field and forget about it,” Sulca said. “Just learn from our mistakes and carry that into this game coming up. We can’t let defeat affect how we go into this next game.”
ULV falls to a 1-7 overall and 1-3 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The Leopards will travel to Occidental at 7 p.m. Saturday for their next match. The Tigers are 4-2-3 overall and 1-2-2 in SCIAC.
Jaydelle Herbert can be reached at jaydelle.herbert@laverne.edu.
