Mesa’s women’s soccer team came within 10 seconds of ending their five-game losing streak, but ultimately had to settle for a 2-2 tie with Citrus College on Sept. 22.
The Olympians women’s soccer team is off to a rocky start. They’re currently 0-1-5. Last year they had a great season. Their performance was the complete opposite of what we’re currently seeing. They racked up the wins and only had two losses, compiling a 13-4-2 record. You may be asking yourself “What happened?” Well the team is fairly young. There are only 4 returning sophomores on the team, and everyone is still familiarizing themselves with each other’s different playing styles.
“There are almost 20 freshmen, it’s hard to adjust but we’re definitely stepping it up,” team captain Sarah Pullman said.
Don’t let the stats fool you, though. The future may look grim for the team but it wouldn’t be the first time that the team manages to turn things around for the better.
When the Olympians played Citrus College, the beginning of the first half was great. The Olympians started off strong and made a lot of great plays, but as time passed they started to lose the midfield to the opposing team. Eventually what were great offensive plays and passes turned into defense. There were, however, some great counter attacks, although they were not enough to get a goal in the first half.
With 2 minutes left in the first half, Citrus College managed to get a goal in. Things were starting to look grim once again, and the moral of the team had dropped.
Things drastically changed in the second half however, the Olympians started off very offensive, aggressive almost. They were not going to settle for another loss. When asked what changed during the half-time Pullman stated, “We wanted to win. We just absorbed everything and made the changes that we needed to make.”
The team kept pushing for a tie and never gave up. At the 60-minute mark, Georgina Herrera scored the first goal, tying things up and making everything a lot more interesting. The morale picked up, and the team was attacking more than ever, there was a lot of great play making but the team just couldn’t seem to get ball in the net.
Six intense minutes later, Pullman scored the second goal, putting the Olympians on top.
At this point the Olympians were not only dominating the field but they had the scoreboard to prove their dominance. The game intensified, neither team wanted to go home with a loss. With 5 minutes remaining in the game Citrus College decided to make a big push and they almost tied things up but Olympians goalie Brittany Garrido was not going to let that happen. Citrus’ efforts were good, just not good enough to get the ball in the net.
After 90 minutes of great play making it looked like the Olympians would put an end to their losing streak, and would take home the win. Everything looked great, unfortunately Citrus was able to tie things up in the last 10 seconds of the game. It was an unexpected play that led to the tie for both teams.
When asked about the team and what the game plan would be moving forward Coach Todd Curran stated “It’s on the kids, they need to make sure they come and compete every day in practice. I’m happy with this team, at 0-5 they could have stopped playing and they haven’t so I’m happy with that effort. I’ve scheduled difficult teams at the beginning of the season for a reason. I think we need to play against playoff teams if we’re going to be a playoff team.”
Curran has been the coach of the women’s soccer program for 17 years. Out of those 17 years his teams have made the playoffs 15 of those times.
“We’re hoping this is 15 of 18,” he said. “I think it will happen because of the effort that they continue to put in. There is no stopping them.”
Mesa will face Imperial Valley on Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. at home.
