TAYLOR BIRD
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine women’s soccer team was defeated in its final home game of the 2007 season Sunday, 2-0 to No. 3-ranked Portland at Tari Frahm Rokus Field.
The Pilots attacked early with a goal in just the 3rd minute of play. Midfielder Keelin Winters brought the ball up the middle and passed it to fellow midfielder Sophie Schmidt. Schmidt then played it to forward Michelle Enyeart, who slipped it into the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Portland would add its second point in the 86th minute after a corner kick by midfielder Angie Wonzuk. The ball was passed from defender Stephanie Lopez to Winters and back to Wonzuk, who then knocked it past Waves’ junior goalkeeper Kayla Stolte.
Pepperdine (5-7-6, 2-3-1) could only manage three shots throughout the match and put two of those on goal. With the victory, Portland (14-3-0, 6-0-0) clinched the West Coast Conference title and extended its winning streak to seven games.
“If you take away the first five minutes, then we sort of settled into the game and did alright,” said Waves’ Head Coach Tim Ward. “I thought we played pretty well in the majority of the [second] half. The problem was we didn’t get any clean, clean looks at their net.”
Before the match, senior players Mckenzie Hill, Katie Rokus, and Loretta Younkin were honored in the annual Senior Day event.
“It’s always tough when you have an emotional presentation like that,” Ward said. “It felt like we weren’t really focused.”
Stolte felt the team put up a good effort in what was arguably Pepperdine’s toughest match-up of the season.
“They’re a really good team. I think we played them really, really well,” she said. “It wasn’t like they had a ton of chances. They were very efficient though; they finish what they get.”
Pepperdine will wrap up its 2007 campaign next Saturday, Nov. 10 at Gonzaga.
11-04-2007