Stephanie Amaya
Staff Writer
The Leopards faced the Whitman College Blues on Saturday at Ortmayer Stadium and were defeated, 1-0.
The Leopards came out strong, keeping possession of the ball and strong aggressive defense during the first half of the match.
“We had some great defensive tactical pieces on what they were doing in the midfield,” head coach Lauryn Pehanich said.
She said that while they had great defensive movement from transitioning from defending to finding weak spots of Whitman, the team had missed opportunities to secure a goal.
The Leopards had 11 attempted shots with five on goal. Junior forward Kristen Smick led with three attempted shots and senior goalkeeper Abigail Macedo made two saves.
“Finding the weak side of the other team and noticing a far shift which helped discover outside pockets in the long ball over we were pretty successful,” junior defender Kylie Klein said.
The Leopards shut down the Blues on defense. It was a scoreless first half with a tense atmosphere to start the second half.
“We plan on working to improve what went wrong in the second half of the game for the next game and going forward,” Klein said.
“We learned in the second half that crossing was a good technique to use against Whitman,” freshman goalkeeper Ryan Jenks said.
Four minutes into the second half, Whitman’s sophomore midfielder Leah Barnes scored the first and only goal of the game at 48:24.
“I thought we played well. We had a good game with a bad moment where the team capitalized on it and fell short to counter,” senior defender Miranda McGarry said. “Whitman were a little slower on the line, which came in handy in terms of tactics to use during the match.”
The turning point of the game came when tensions rose as a foul was given to the Leopards. Fans in the stadium became unsettled as the referee carded an assistant coach on the Leopards.
“It’s a hard balance, but it’s one that we try our best to showcase to them. There is always going to be ups and downs in every sport, that’s why it’s such a beautiful thing to play a sport,” Pehanich said. “We have to do a good job of letting the moment go and continuing the next play. We are all human and it shows we have passion and that we care.”
Pehanich highlights that the seniors are doing a good job of explaining and taking the freshmen along with them under their wings in the learning experience.
“I think it is a good dynamic to have such a large group of seniors because it makes having a large group of freshmen easier,” Pehanich said. “There is just so much to teach them and guide them but having a lot of seniors, we are noticing a lot of freshmen stepping up.”
Coming off the loss and a 1-1 tie against Oberlin on Aug. 30, the Leopards brought all the pieces together with a dramatic three-goal comeback win against the Life Pacific Warriors on Wednesday to win, 3-2.
The Leopards return to the field at 7 p.m. Saturday against Stanton at Ortmayer Stadium.
Stephanie Amaya can be reached at stephanie.amaya@laverne.edu.
Stephanie Amaya is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations and a staff photographer for the Campus Times. She has previously served as a staff writer.
