Muristek
In the second countable game of the season, #8 Westmont Women’s Soccer (2-0) posted a 1-0 win over California Lutheran on Saturday night in Thousand Oaks.
The lone goal of the game came in just the ninth minute of play when sophomore defender Ande Siegel drove in a free kick from 25 yards out on the left side. The Regal’s keeper got her hands on the ball, but was unable to prevent it from penetrating the goal line. The goal was the first of Siegel’s collegiate career.
“The stats show that we are generating good opportunities,” said Westmont head coach Jenny Jaggard. “We got 18 shots today and many of them were very legitimate compared to our prior games this season. We are definitely getting more dangerous in the final third. I liked some of the individual things our forwards are doing to create those spaces and those gaps. That is something we have emphasized this week and I thought they did a really good job.
“Grace Duckens really stepped it up. I thought for sure she was going to have a goal. It’s coming! I am excited that she is getting her confidence up. Believe it or not, she ran and passed the ‘Warrior (fitness) test’ today and then put on that performance after doing an incredibly hard interval workout. I am super proud of where she is at right now. It was phenomenal for her to play the minutes she just did with the skill that she just did.
“I thought Reese Davidson played well today, setting people up. She sent some beautiful flick-on balls and showed a little more creativity that was less predictable.”
Of the Warriors 18 shots, 12 of which were on goal, five came off the foot of (senior) Karly Kingsley including four on goal.
“Karly was phenomenal on the outside of the diamond,” assessed Jaggard. “She covered more ground than I’ve seen a player cover in a while. She was everywhere. Between her and (freshman) Amelia Villa, it is really exciting that we are getting the edge of our diamond up and they are becoming forwards.
“Bling (Grace Hotaling) had a fantastic game today. She sat at both the attacking-mid and at the defensive-mid positions. I thought that she was looking amazing in both of those roles and helping us keep it settled and keep the ball. It was very unfortunate that she was injured tonight.”
Kailey Meyer recorded her second shutout of the season. She recorded five saves in the process, including two in the final 10 minutes to preserve the victory.
“There was so much good tonight,” expressed Jaggard. “It is exciting. We are still in the beginning phase where we have some kinks to work out. We need to learn how to manage a 1-0 game at the end and we definitely had some scary moments. Overall, however, I am very happy because there were some key things that happened tonight that we as coaches had been harping on. The improvement is very visible. I am pleased with the work ethic and the ‘coachability’ of this team.”
Westmont’s season continues next Thursday when they host Lincoln, an NCAA Division II team out of Oakland. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.
Ron Smith is the sports information director at Westmont College.
email: sports@newspress.com
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