TAYLOR BIRD
Staff Writer
Pepperdine women’s soccer team was dealt a 2-0 loss at the hands of 19th-ranked Wake Forest, in the second and final match of the WCC/ACC Adidas Challenge at the University of San Diego.
The Waves (0-1-1) took an early hit when Wake Forest forward Caitlin Farrell scored a goal in the fourth minute of the match.
“That’s not really the way you want to start a soccer match,” said Head Coach Tim Ward. “It was sort of unfortunate that we went in the hole so early.”
Wake Forest held on to a slim lead for the remainder of the first period, as each team’s defense battled in what would be a low-scoring affair for the majority of the 90 minutes of the match.
It was not until late in the second period that Wake Forest forward Allie Shadow scored the game’s final goal to increase her team’s lead to 2-0. The goal came in the 76th minute of the match and resulted in the Waves’ first loss of the season.
“Late in the match we tried to equalize,” Ward said. “We didn’t really have it.”
Scoring opportunities were few and far between for both teams in Sunday’s defensive struggle. The Waves were out-shot 13-3 by their opponent and were unable to put any shots on goal.
On the defensive side, Ward praised junior goalkeeper Kayla Stolte, who saved four of the six shots on goal by Wake Forest.
Ward said his team’s deep roster was a liability instead of an asset during the match, and his constant rotation of players made it difficult for his team to find short-term consistency.
“We have a lot of talent. We have to figure out what our best lineup is…because we have a lot of options,” said Ward. “I didn’t feel like we got into a good rhythm because we were trying to give a lot of players playing time.”
Perhaps the silver lining of the loss to Wake Forest is that it exposed the team to some of its shortcomings and gave the players a better idea of what they need to improve for a successful season, said sophomore forward Alexis Farler.
“Even though we lost 2-0, I feel that [the match] definitely made our weaknesses stand out and [told us] what we need to work on to go forward,” said Farler. “It was more like a building step to what we need to accomplish for our season.”
The defeat came two days after Pepperdine’s season opener and first match of the WCC/ACC Adidas Challenge, in which the Waves fought to a 0-0 tie against 22nd-ranked Duke.
In that match, Pepperdine out-shot Duke 15-9 and put 11 shots on goal, but could not take advantage of any of the opportunities to get on the scoreboard.
“Friday night we should have won the game,” Ward said. “We had some really, really good opportunities to put the game away.”
But Ward says he still had to admire his squad’s performance versus a ranked opponent and he was satisfied by the way they came out fighting in the first match of the season.
“We felt pretty good about the tie. It’s our first time out — that’s good,” he said, adding that he was really pleased with his team’s performance and effort.
The Waves’ schedule does not get any easier in the immediate future, as the team heads to Ohio to take on Ohio State (2-0-0) on Friday, Sept. 7 and Dayton (2-0-0) on Sunday, Sept. 9.
Ward said the road ahead will be rough, but he is confident that his players will come out of the gates fighting.
“Our schedule’s brutal, and we’re going to rise to the challenge.”
09-06-2007
