Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Playing against the first-place team and top-scoring offense in the Pacific West Conference, the Dominican University of California women's soccer team kept Saturday's home game on Kennelly Field at the John F. Allen Athletics Complex close. Dominican fell to California Baptist University 1-0 on a goal in the final seconds of the first half. The Lady Penguins (6-6-1/5-4-1) wore pink uniforms for “Kick Out Breast Cancer Day.” In front of the largest home crowd of the season, the Dominican soccer teams helped raised more than $2,000 for the Marin General Hospital Foundation, earmarked for the hospital's breast health program.
They also raised their game to play the Lancers (10-2-1/9-1-0), the ninth-ranked team in the West Region in this week's NSCAA poll. CBU came into the game averaging a PacWest best 2.75 goals per game.
“I thought defensively our shape was very good and I thought we won a lot of 50/50 balls and played smart,” said Dominican Director of Soccer Jonathan Delano. “We limited them to a lot of outside shots, which was good. That's fine. That's what we want. We're good with that.”
The Lady Penguins played the high-scoring Lancers even for the first 43 minutes before CBU cashed in. After the Lancers were awarded a penalty kick and Bernadette Witz struck it off the crossbar, she got a second chance two minutes later. With 14.6 seconds remaining in the half, Witz had a running start and headed a crossing pass from Kimberly Allard into the goal.
Dominican scrambled on defense when sophomore left back
Megan Hanson was scratched from the starting lineup just minutes before kickoff with a migraine headache. The Lady Penguins kept the Lancers at distance, thanks to a pair of blocks by center backs
Kendra Corsberg and
Kathryn Ripple and a clutch header by midfielder
Jessica Ramirez following a punch-out by Dominican goalkeeper
Megan Herring off a corner kick.
Offensively, the Lady Penguins couldn't get close enough to the CBU goal to strike a threatening shot. They did, however, have a couple of combination plays that presented scoring chances.
Emily Whitaker outmuscled the Lancers defense at midfield, leading to passes to
Stephanie Owens and Ramirez, whose shot was saved. Dominican had only two shots to the Lancers' eight in the first half.
In the second half, Herring, who is first in PacWest in saves percentage (.917) and second in goals against average (0.70), had two more saves and gave Dominican a chance to pull off the upset. The Lady Penguins' best scoring opportunity came in a four-minute span with about 16 minutes to play.
Julianna Bratsberg, the team's leading scorer, nearly got to a terrific corner kick by
Sara Pimentel and freshman
Lauren Gollnick slipped when the Lancers left a rebound near her feet.
Dominican wound up with six shots – two by Bratsberg – while the Lancers had 13.
“I thought it was a pretty even game. The majority of the game was played in between the two 18-yard boxes. That's what we wanted,” said Delano. “No one likes to lose but I thought we hung tough and gave ourselves opportunities to tie. That speaks volumes as to how hard these girls work.”
The Lady Penguins' next three games are in Hawai'i. The team leaves Thursday for a week-long road trip to Oahu. They play Chaminade in Honolulu on Friday at 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. Pacific time.
