With a 2-1 victory over San Francisco, the Waves (16-1-2) clinch the program’s first ever West Coast Conference title.
By Jeremy Tammaro
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine women’s soccer team is downright disgusting, but in a very good way.
They strut through the West Coast Conference like a team of born winners, losing only one game all season. They beat the then No. 2 Portland Pilots and the defending national champion Santa Clara Broncos in back-to-back matches. The Waves began the season projected by many as the fourth best team in the WCC only to find themselves “queens of the mountain” at season’s end, winning their first WCC Championship and earning the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
As Inspector Gadget might say, “Wowzers!”
It has been that sort of campaign for the 2002 women’s soccer team. Team members knew they belonged at the top all along, and week-by-week they let their school and the rest of the nation in on their secret. As a reward, the No. 5 nationally ranked Waves received the No. 3 overall seed for the NCAA Women’s College Cup, set to kickoff this weekend.
“I was shocked that we were selected number three,” Waves Head Coach Tim Ward said, “But I’m stoked. It’s an awesome compliment to the team.”
It is the resiliency of the team that is a compliment to the Waves coaching staff. At no time this season did any opponent just step aside and let the Waves have an easy win, and this was certainly the case when the University of San Francisco Dons came to town last Saturday.
The match took place on sodden ground before a crowd of 763 soggy spectators. The field was sure to slow the Waves’ upbeat style of play and the constant rain and overcast sky gave way to an eerie premonition that this might not go as planned.
The Dons took their shots early and seized control of the tempo with a goal six minutes into the match. Dons freshman midfielder Stephanie Gray headed home a cross from teammate senior midfielder Mary Spiker for a 1-0 lead.
“I touched it,” Waves goalkeeper Anna Picarelli said. “My gloves were really wet and it just slipped (through).”
Pepperdine still had plenty of scoring opportunities in the first half, but a couple missed shots on goal combined with one shot off the crossbar and another off the post sent the Waves into halftime down on the scoreboard and on themselves.
“I was a little nervous after the first half,” Picarelli admitted. “Everyone somehow found a way to pump one another up.”
The 10-minute break allowed the Waves to settle down and regain control of their destiny.
“The girls felt it,” Ward said, “but we just told them to relax. We were caught up in the moment. Soccer is a funny thing, if you just relax the chances will present themselves.”
Ward proved to be prophetic, and in the second half Pepperdine seized its opportunities and made the most of them.
At the start of the second half, the sense of urgency that permeated through the Waves’ fans was heightened by two more shot attempts off the Dons’ goalpost in the opening minutes. The Waves continued to fire away, and 22 minutes into the second half they finally hit pay dirt.
In the 67th minute freshman forward Megan Woods followed up sophomore forward Ali Pavoni’s blocked shot and tied the game at 1-1.
“Soccer is one of the few games where a team can dominate and still loose,” Ward said. “Prior to that (goal) you just wondered if it was going to be one of those games.
Pavoni’s rocket was knocked away by Dons junior goalie Jennifer Orantes, but the deflection sent the ball to an open Woods who finished the play.
“I was just really excited,” Woods said. “It was just a good moment. I think that (goal) pushed us to keep going.”
In the 76th minute Pepperdine pulled ahead for good as Pavoni delivered her fourth game-winning goal of the season. The Dons cleared sophomore defender Ashley Swanson’s free kick away, but Swanson quickly sent the ball back into the box to a waiting Pavoni.
“No one was really marking me,” Pavoni said, “so I just took the shot.”
The goal gave Pavoni a team high 11 for the season. The assist tied Swanson’s personal single season mark at three.
Pepperdine held on in the waning moments of the match to finish its regular season at home with a perfect 10-0 record.
“This team just finds a way to do it,” Ward said. “We knew all along that we were the better team.”
In the process, they were named WCC Co-Champions along with Santa Clara, but because the Waves beat the Broncos in head-to-head competition, Pepperdine received the conference’s automatic bid.
The Waves take a No. 3 seed east to face the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday.
The winner of this match will play the winner of host Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin Sunday.
November 14, 2002