Another late season loss for the women’s soccer team (1-2-2) drags them to a second-to-last tie with LMU in the West Coast Conference after Friday’s 2-1 disappointment against the University of San Diego. WCC preseason coaching polls projected Pepperdine to finish fourth in the conference however they have only posted two wins in the last nine games with a season record of 8-6-5.
Friday’s game against San Diego gave hope to the Waves in the first half. Although they fell behind after an early goal sophomore forward Michelle Manning netted her third goal of the season to tie the game in the 22nd minute after a cross from junior forward Laura Cole who was named to the CoSIDA/ESPN Academic All-District 8 second team on Monday. So far this season the Waves were 8-0 when they scored in the first half but after San Diego regained the lead in the 51st minute they held it.
Both goals were rather unfortunate to watch. The defenders seemed to be on their heels as the Torero forwards found their way in between them. Although sophomore goalkeeper Roxanne Barker made two saves in the game her scrambling dives left the net wide open for the attacking forwards to finish easily.
The Waves have their last season match at home on Saturday Nov. 6th at 1 p.m. against Santa Clara who stands with a 4-2 record in the WCC.