By RON SMITH
WESTMONT COLLEGE WRITER
The Westmont women’s soccer team, ranked 18th in the NAIA, settled for a double-overtime tie Monday with the Battlin’ Bears of Rocky Mountain (Mont.).
Both teams entered the contest 2-0 and exited with records of 2-0-1.
The Warriors came out strong and had the run of play throughout the first half with Westmont tallying nine shots to Rocky Mountain’s four.
“We generated a lot of opportunities, but didn’t get it done when we needed to early in the game,” said Westmont head coach Jenny Jaggard. “They had no idea how to handle us in the first half, and we didn’t take advantage of it. That is something we have to do better. It has become a habit we need to fix.
“They adjusted to us in the second half and things got more complicated. We made a bad mistake in the back line and gave away a goal.”
Less than 20 seconds into frame number two, an errant pass in the Warriors’ back row resulted in the Battlin’ Bears taking a 1-0 lead.
Rocky Mountain’s Morgan Maack found herself at the top of the 18 with the ball at her feet and no one between herself and Westmont goalkeeper Kailey Meyer. Maack’s left-footed shot was deflected by a diving Meyer, but the ball found Brynn Klineleter on the right-hand side of the six-foot box. Klineleter fired inside the near post past the outstretched arms of Meyer who had reversed directions to dive to her left.
Westmont’s Reese Davidson, however, responded with an equalizer just four minutes later.
Ande Siegel sent a ball toward the box that ricocheted off a defender and bounded toward the middle of the field. Davidson, who had been just outside the 18-yard box, beat the defender to the ball touching it with her left foot. She then followed the ball and used her left foot to chip it from 27 yards out over the goalkeeper’s upwardly stretched hands and into the back of the net.
“The shining light in that game is that we came back and scored less than five minutes after they scored on us,” asserted Jaggard. “We came back from a moment where we could have easily fallen apart and when the other team had the momentum. They found a way to get it done and get on the board. Reese is getting better and more confident at putting away opportunities.”
Following Davidson’s goal, neither team could generate much offense. Each team managed to place the ball on frame just once more in the following 60 minutes of soccer.
Despite the lack of offensive production, there were additional bright spots for the coach, including the performance of Daisy Alvarez.
“Daisy did a tremendous job in the midfield, holding off their best player and winning all the 50-50 balls in the midfield,” affirmed Jaggard. “We didn’t have a deep roster today and the players did a good job of managing tired legs. There are some positive things to work from.”
The Warriors have the rest of the week to recover from those tired legs before heading to La Grande, Ore., for games against Northwest (Wash.) (0-2-1) on Saturday and No. 10 Eastern Oregon (1-1) on Monday.
email: dmason@newspress.com
Ron Smith is the sports information director at Westmont College.
