Women’s Soccer: Vanguard edged in PKs
Some 110 minutes of nothingness did little to prepare the Vanguard University women’s soccer team for the feeling of emptiness that followed Saturday afternoon.
The former described a scoreless deadlock that included 90 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtimes in the first round of the NAIA Tournament against Cal State San Marcos.
The latter was created by a 4-3 advantage in penalty kicks for the visiting Cougars, who advanced to the quarterfinals on Dec. 1 in Orange Beach, Fla.
Vanguard (16-3-2), ranked 10 in the final NAIA poll, had its season end.
Adding further to the difficulty the Lions were forced to swallow, was the unlikely turn of events upon which the penalty-kick session hinged.
While both goalkeepers made one save and three players delivered for both teams to create a 3-3 deadlock heading into the last of the 10 penalty tries, it was a miss by Vanguard senior Jennifer Martin, a two-time All-Golden State Athletic performer whose 14 goals this season were two more than the combined total of all five Cougars who participated in PKs, that proved costly for the Lions.
Additionally, the clinching goal for the No. 15-ranked Cougars (11-2-5), was produced by senior Kay Courtney, who was not in the starting lineup.
Martin, the second-leading Vanguard scorer with 34 points (two points for a goal and one for an assist), opened the PK session by caroming a high shot off the right goal post, less than a foot below where the crossbar and post meet.
Senior defender Brianne Searl then found the net for San Marcos, followed by successful attempts by Vanguard junior reserve Asia Kleinmeyer and Cougars junior Natalie Lara.
San Marcos senior goalkeeper Amanda Sears then dived to her right to save a low shot from Vanguard senior defender Makenna Yarbor, and Cougars’ scoring leader Paulina Good, a junior with seven goals and 16 points this season, converted to give the visitors a 3-1 edge after the third of five rounds.
Freshman reserve midfielder Nicole Dunn tucked her shot just inside the left post to start Round 4, and Vanguard’s two-time all-conference keeper Lauren Terry, who was also an All-American in 2012, dived to her left to save a slow-rolling shot from junior Sarah Campbell.
Vanguard forward Madison Cody, a junior all-conference pick who led the Lions with 15 goals and 41 points, but was held without a shot in 110 minutes Saturday, made good on her do-or-die attempt to open the fifth round.
But Courtney, who did not have a shot off the bench in regulation and overtime and had just two goals and five shots on goal all season, drove her offering inside the left goal post to eliminate the Lions.
Both teams finished with 13 shots, though San Marcos put eight on frame, one more than the Lions.
Terry had eight saves heading into PKs, one more than Sears, and it was the 13th shutout of the season for both teams.
The Cougars took two of the game’s three corner kicks and had 11 of the contest’s 21 fouls, as well as its only yellow card.
“It was back-and-forth and an all-out battle,” said Lauren Walker, the Lions associate head coach who was required to fill in for Coach Randy Dodge. Dodge, who leads both men’s and women’s programs at the school, was accompanying the men’s team in its opening-round match in Indiana on Saturday.
“They knew how to prepare for us and we knew how to prepare for them,” Walker said. “It was a stalemate.”
With tears flowing from most of her players several moments after final PK, Walker tried to put her team’s disappointment in perspective.
“The girls fought hard from beginning to end,” Walker said. “PKs is always a tossup, no matter how good your team is. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. They had a good keeper and we had a good keeper. There were good shots on both sides. It’s tough.”
Vanguard, which shared the GSAC regular-season title and lost to fellow champion Westmont in the GSAC Tournament final, outscored opponents this season, 70-10.
Cal State San Marcos takes a 37-7 goal differential into the quarterfinals.