SARAH SCHREFF/Photo Editor
TAYLOR BIRD
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine women’s soccer team completed its first home sweep over the weekend, topping San Francisco 2-0 Friday before defeating Saint Mary’s with a lopsided 5-1 score Sunday. The Waves improved their record to 2-2-1 in conference play and 5-6-6 overall.
Friday’s match was scoreless until the 24th minute, when Pepperdine sophomore midfielder Joanna Idom delivered her first goal as a Wave. Sophomore forward Courtney Price passed the ball to Idom who knocked it in from mid box to give her team a 1-0 lead.
“I’m really pleased for Joanna Idom,” said Pepperdine Head Coach Tim Ward. “She’s been training great, [and] she’s been getting better the past couple of weeks.”
The Waves added another goal in the second half. In the 80th minute, junior defender Ashley Copp fed the ball to freshman forward Kylie McDonald, who sliced it from the corner into the left side of the net. This was McDonald’s second goal of the season and increased the Pepperdine lead to 2-0.
“For Kylie to go in as a sub and really make an impact and get the killer goal,” Ward said, “that’s sort of what we lacked all year. That second goal took all the pressure off.”
Pepperdine dominated offensively throughout the entire match, earning a 14-6 shot advantage. Junior goalkeeper Kayla Stolte saved all four of San Francisco’s shots on goal.
“We should’ve been winning a lot more, so it’s good to finally come out on top for once,” junior forward Amanda Rupp said. “We battled hard and we got the job done.”
On Sunday, the Waves’ first three goals came in the first half. In the 5th minute of play, freshman midfielder Nicole Romanowski poked the ball in after a header from Copp rebounded off the crossbar.
In the 35th minute, sophomore forward Alexis Farler passed the ball to her right at senior midfielder Mckenzie Hill, who knocked the ball into the back of the net from about 25 feet away.
Rupp contributed a goal in the 39th minute, kicking the ball into the net after a shot by freshman forward Sage Coralli ricocheted off Saint Mary’s goalkeeper Tara Larson.
The Waves went up 4-0 in the 66th minute on Coralli’s first collegiate goal. St. Mary’s finally got on the board in the 84th minute, courtesy of an unassisted goal by midfielder Jessica Menzhuber that launched over the head of Waves’ senior goalkeeper Katie Rokus.
But Pepperdine still had some fight in them as the clock ticked down. With just seven seconds left in the match, sophomore midfielder Joanna Idom snuck a ball past Larson to give her team a 5-1 lead.
“Anybody that saw the game [Sunday] saw a really good soccer team,” Ward said. “This team can play, and the good news is the playing resulted in goals today.”
The Waves tallied 27 total shots and put 18 on goal.
“We played very professional this weekend,” junior defender Kelsey Baker said. “Our goal is to win the rest of [our games] and put ourselves in the best position for anything that could possibly happen for the [NCAA] tournament.”
Pepperdine will play its final home game and toughest match-up of the season Sunday versus No. 6-ranked Portland (13-3-0, 5-0-0) at 1 p.m.
11-01-2007
