JANE LEE
Sports Assistant
After stumbling in its last two conference matches, the No.-17 Pepperdine women’s soccer team came back strong this weekend, picking up wins over the University of San Diego and Cal State Northridge.
The Waves improved to 3-2-2 in the West Coast Conference and 12-3-3 overall.
Senior goalkeeper Anna Picarelli registered her fifth shutout of the season as Pepperdine grabbed a 2-0 victory over San Diego (1-5-0, 5-12-1) on Friday.
The Waves dominated San Diego territory from the start of the match. At the 16:37 mark, senior Megan Woods tapped the ball over Torero goalkeeper Karen Cook to put Pepperdine on the board 1-0.
The Waves continued to pressure the Torero defense, and at the 34:02 mark, senior Daniella Bosio made it 2-0 when she scored from 20 yards out after Cook misplayed the ball in the net. The goal was Bosio’s first of the season after being out with an injury.
Pepperdine continued to control possession of the ball during most of the second half, firing shot after shot. While holding the Toreros scoreless, the Waves totaled 10 shots in the second half.
Pepperdine held a 16-7 advantage in shots and held San Diego to just one shot on goal.
Junior forward Lindsey Redlin and Bosio led the team with five shots each.
“San Diego is better than their record would indicate and they did have a few good chances, but I thought our girls played exceptionally well,” Head Coach Tim Ward said. “We kept our shape throughout the majority of the game, worked hard on defense to make the field small and when we won the ball, we did a nice job of keeping it.”
Two days later in a non-conference match, the Waves defeated Northridge 2-1 in a battle that lasted until the final seconds at Tari Frahm Rokus Field.
After handling the ball with ease and playing the ball back and forth as the game began, the Waves got a boost when sophomore midfielder McKenzie Hill dribbled the ball down the field where her shot bounced off of a Matador defender. Woods took the ball and then scored from 10 yards out to give the Waves a 1-0 lead at the 31:08 mark.
Pepperdine defenders protected the net and held Northridge’s one-goal advantage at the half.
The Waves extended their lead when senior forward Jenna Fodor fed the ball to Redlin, who sailed the ball over Northridge goalkeeper April Cline at the 65:43 mark to make it a 2-0 game.
The Matadors (11-8-0) got on the scoreboard at the 82:22 mark when forward Brianna Monk sneaked the ball in the back of the net.
Northridge came close to tying the game before the horn sounded when it pulled its goalkeeper out with less than a minute to play and a shot was fired toward the Pepperdine net off of a corner kick. Picarelli, however, grabbed the ball in the chaos to protect the Waves’ lead and give them a 2-1 victory.
“Late in the game we had some new faces on the field, and our organization suffered a bit against a team that played a system we haven’t seen too much,” Ward said. “However, at the end of the day, we felt good about the result, how our players battled and the chances we created from the run of play.”
Pepperdine out shot Northridge 12-10, including eight shots on goal with Redlin taking four of them. Picarelli, once again proving to be a vital player for the Waves, registered five saves in the match.
Pepperdine will conclude regular season play Friday when it takes on nationally-ranked Santa Clara at home in a 1 p.m. contest.
“We are incredibly excited to host (Santa Clara),” Ward said. “We have had a lot of success against this team recently on our field and we plan to continue that trend.
“We’ll look to sharpen up the things we have been doing all year and we want to give our seniors a great memory of the day as well as giving our fans a great result.”
11-03-2005