Author: Chris Nelson
It was a bittersweet end to the SCIAC conference tournament for the Occidental Women’s Soccer team. After defeating Redlands in the semi-final match up, the Tigers were bested in the championship game by the Regals of California Lutheran University. The Regals overcame the Tigers in penalty kicks after the two teams remained knotted at 2-2, despite two overtimes.
Occidental reached the conference championship game by finishing in the top four in SCIAC regular season play and by defeating Redlands 1-0 last Thursday at Claremont in a nail-biting victory. The game’s sole goal came off the foot of Ali Caditz (first-year) with the assist going to Jesi Sasaki (first-year). The Tiger defense held for the entire 90-minute game, with Redlands hitting the post once, but never finding the back of the net.
“You get into the top four in conference and there are no easy games,” Tiger Coach Colm McFeely said of the conference tournament. “Against Redlands we had a little bit of that extra edge.”
The Redlands victory was unorthodox for the Tigers, as Coach McFeely had to proctor a test for two of his players immediately before the game, thereby cutting the warm-up time down to 30 minutes.
Occidental hosted the SCIAC championship game on the same day as Homecoming, providing the team with a large and excitable crowd. “There was a great crowd there,” Coach McFeely said. “We were delighted to see that. This is one of the first times we have had a conference title game on campus for any sport; Homecoming just added to it.”
The Regals put the Tigers on the defensive in the first half, dominating the time of possession and controlling the ball offensively. Oxy escaped the first half with the game tied at 0-0, despite the Cal Lutheran pressure. “We sort of played a bit of Cal Lutheran’s game in the first half,” McFeely said.
Despite the first-half struggle, the Tigers came out firing in the second half. They started to maintain their possessions and gained some offensive opportunities in the process. The Tigers struck first in the second half when, at 58:49 in the game, Carly Wachi (sophomore) scored off Adrienne Spivak’s (senior) pass.
However, the Regals answered right back when Cal Lutheran’s Jordan Kirkman scored off a free kick in the 65th minute. The feverish offense pace continued as Occidental quickly answered the Regal goal. Season Falkler-Rodriguez (first-year) scored the go-ahead goal for Oxy, but once again, the Tiger lead did not hold. Minutes after the crowd had gone wild for Falkler-Rodriguez’s goal, the Regals once again answered when Cal Lutheran’s Sarah Rickert scored.
When regulation play expired, the teams remained tied at two goals a piece and headed to overtime, but one overtime was not enough to end the deadlock. Neither was two for that matter, as the two deadlocked teams headed for penalty kicks despite 20 minutes of post-regulation play. Cal Lutheran made their first three kicks, whereas the Tigers converted just one. When CLU converted on its fourth PK, the game was over and the Regals had won the SCIAC conference tournament.
The standing room-only crowd was less than pleased with the result and particularly the officiating that contributed to it. One call in particular stood out when the referee failed to call the Regals for a handball in the box that would have resulted in a penalty kick for the Tigers, despite having called a handball minutes earlier on Occidental’s Corrine Winkler (first-year). “I don’t want to go into the officiating,” Coach McFeely said. “But that was a definitive no call.”
Despite the disappointing loss to Cal Lutheran in the title game, this season has been particularly successful for Oxy Women’s Soccer and a stark departure from a season six years ago, where the team managed only one goal all season.
“The girls really care for each other and they have bonded so well this season,” Coach McFeely said, reflecting on the season. “Once we are able to let go of the emotion of Saturday’s result, we will be able to look at the goals we have achieved, but there will still be a hunger there.”
The future is bright for the Women’s Soccer team. Although they will lose Senior Co-Captains Adrienne Spivak and Melissa Warner and senior Jennifer Lopez (J-Lo), they are a young team with promise. Coach McFeely credits his seniors with creating a winning environment at Occidental.
“You build relationships with players and are sorry to see them go, but their time here has been hugely successful,” he said. “They have paved the way for the future of our program and raised our standards.”
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
