Pui Lok Choi
Staff Writer
The Leopards dropped two conference games in a Saturday doubleheader after losing its conference opener to last season’s champion, the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen, on April 3.
In the first game against the Redlands Bulldogs, the Leopards lost, 16-6, and in the early evening game, the Leopards fell once again, 17-4, to the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens.
“It has been a very tough year for us, we lost two of our girls early in the season with dislocated shoulders,” said head coach Alex La.
The Leopards were outmatched and outnumbered, due to the injuries and an already understaffed team. For much of the game the Sagehens played to their strengths and subbed fresh players into the game frequently while the Leopards were not afforded that luxury.
“It has definitely been hard playing without subs for this long,” senior utility player Catherine Tehuitzil said.
“Today was hard, it was a very long day and we played with what we had,” said sophomore utility player Ashley Forsberg.
The team was already undermanned even before the injuries and for next season the Leos hope to add a few players to their staff. “We’ve been doing heavy recruiting and we did well at spotlight weekend. We had about 10 to 15 recruits stay on campus,” La said.
The Leopards still have four more Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games in a 10-day stretch.
On Wednesday the Leopards continued its conference schedule with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Despite strong performances by Forsberg and Roberts, who tallied three goals a piece, the Leopards dropped the game, 14-9.
La Verne will be back in its home pool at 11 a.m. on Saturday against Whittier.
Pui Lok Choi can be reached at pui.choi@laverne.edu.
