JANE LEE
Sports Assistant
Senior forward Megan Woods’ goal with less than six minutes remaining broke a 2-2 tie to lead the Pepperdine women’s soccer team to victory Sunday afternoon over Kansas at the San Diego Tournament.
While Kansas’ record fell to 3-2-1 on the season, the win improved nationally ranked Pepperdine, which is 5-0-0, its best start in school history.
Woods produced her second game-winning goal of the season as she beat a defender and shot the ball into an empty net on a breakaway for a 3-2 lead in the 84th minute. Junior forward Lindsey Redlin was credited with the assist.
“That goal was fantastic,” coach Tim Ward said. “The girls have been in every conceivable position this season, from being up on teams and being down, but they always seem to find a way to pull through, and that shows a lot of character of this team.”
The Waves had fallen behind early in the game when Kansas’ Holly Gault scored the first of her two goals by heading in a corner kick at the 24:37 mark.
Kansas held the lead until the 36:25 mark when freshman midfielder Emily Wynne scored her first career goal from 20 yards out to tie the score at 1-1. Senior midfielder Kelsey Quane and Redlin got the assists.
Quane then gave Pepperdine its first lead of the contest when she scored an unassisted goal from 28 yards out at the 64:59 mark to put the Waves ahead 2-1.
“That was a very, very good goal by Quane,” Ward said. “She’s definitely been one of our best players all season.”
The score remained in favor of the Waves until the 78:28 mark when Gault scored for the second time after her shot deflected off a Pepperdine defender and into the net, which evened the score at 2-2.
“I think that was the best game we’ve played all season,” Ward said. “Our backline played extremely well against Kansas’ strong frontline, and everyone just seemed to contribute in some way.”
While senior goalkeeper Anna Picarelli totaled five saves in the match, each team attempted 13 shots and the Waves held an 8-6 advantage over the Jayhawks in shots-on-goal.
The victory against No. 28 Kansas lifted the Waves up the national rankings as they are now ranked No. 9 by Soccer Times, No. 10 by Soccer Buzz magazine and No. 11 by Soccer America and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
Pepperdine’s No. 9 ranking by Soccer Times marks the first time this season that the team is nationally ranked among the top 10. The last time it was in the top 10 was Oct. 13, 2003, when it was ranked eighth.
The team concludes its five-match road trip this week when it travels to Texas to take on Texas Christian (3-3-0) and Southern Methodist (4-3-0).
The Waves will face Texas Christian in Fort Worth beginning at 2 p.m. Friday and will then travel to Dallas to compete against Southern Methodist in an 11 a.m. Sunday match.
“They’re all going to be good teams, and we can expect everything to be against us on the road, especially since we’ve moved up in the rankings,” Ward said. “But if we play like I know we can, we’re going to keep winning.”
09-15-2005
