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TARI FRAHM ROKUS FIELD, NOV. 12 — The women’s soccer team played an emotional 90 minutes Saturday, losing 1-0 to Long Beach St. in its first round NCAA Tournament game. Long Beach State’s Nadia Link scored the game-winning goal in the 99th minute during overtime to send the Waves into the off-season prematurely.
The Waves thoroughly outplayed the 49er’s on paper, holding a 12-2 advantage in shots on goal, as well as controlling possession of the ball throughout the game. But according to the Waves’ head coach, Long Beach was able to capitalize on a bad ball that went their way.
“You could tell by the way the ball went off her [Link’s] foot that she didn’t mean to kick it the way she did; you could just see it get twisted in the air,” said Head Coach Tim Ward of Pepperdine.
Freshman forward Lynn Williams had four shots on goal alone for Pepperdine (15-2-4), and was robbed by LBSU (16-5-1) goalkeeper Kaitlyn Gustaves twice in the second half.
As the 49er’s celebrated their victory on the field among hundreds of LBSU fans in the stands, the Waves couldn’t help but feel like the season for the record books went for naught.
“This is a special team, and we felt this was the team that could make a deep run in the tournament,” Ward said. “We faced a great team today, and I told the girls that they shouldn’t feel like they lost today. That [LBSU] is a great team we just played.”
The Waves had their best chance to score thwarted on a beautiful cross that was nearly headed in by junior forward Anisa Guajardo late in the second half. Again it was Gustaves saving the day for LBSU, finishing the second half and overtime with 7 of her 12 saves.
For Pepperdine, the loss ends the careers of four great seniors, including midfielder Myriah Stockman who played the entire game from beginning to end. The bright spot for the Waves is that three of their four leading goal scorers return to the field next season, along with standout goalkeeper Roxanne Barker.
“We had a great year, but we have a lot of improvements to make and we will work hard to do better next year,” Guarjado said. “As soon as the game ended I was thinking about next spring.”
LBSU moves on to face Miami on Nov. 18 at a location and time to be determined.
