Westmont Women’s Soccer completed their non-conference schedule with a 1-0 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Friday afternoon at Thorrington Field. Ashley Correa provided the sole goal of the game to give the Warriors the victory. With the win, Westmont improves to 5-2 as it prepares to head into Golden State Athletic Conference play. CMS fell to 2-2-2.
“It’s fantastic heading into conference with this win,” said Westmont head coach Kristi Kiely. “I told the team, ‘you are starting to turn heads, people are starting to think about you.’ The word today was, ‘you really need to give them something to think about. If you beat a team the number one team in the nation couldn’t beat, you give them even more to think about.’
Top-ranked Azusa Pacific (4-0-1) played CMS to a scoreless tie on September 5.
Correa’s goal came in the seventeenth minute of play. After a shot by Christine Adams was deflected out of bounds by a CMS back, the Warriors were awarded a corner kick. Correa took the corner kick and curved it into the goal. For good measure, Jenny Martinez got her head on the ball and sent it into the net. However, the line judge had ruled that the ball had already crossed the plane of the goal before reaching Martinez.
The shutout was the fourth this season for the Warriors and the third for Westmont keeper Lindsey Smith.
“After the Cal State LA game, the coaches got together and decided we had fallen short, taking for granted our back line,” reported Kiely. “Even though they are young they are very strong; we took that for granted. So we have been very committed to working on that every week. The work that the defensive players put in has really done wonders. The backs are doing the work tactically and technically and with shear work rate.
“I also give a lot of credit to Lindsey Smith,” said Kiely. “As I have said before, we all feel very comfortable with her back there. Lindsey came up with two really big saves tonight – the tip that hit the crossbar in the first half and the one-on-one in the second half.
Kiely also had praise for junior captain Aolani Rueff.
“Aolani was a game changer in the second half,” noted the coach. “She was able to take a deep breath at halftime and gather herself. She came out with incredible energy, had great ideas on and off the ball, got herself in quite a bit and had a fantastic second half.
On the negative side for the Warirors, Carolina Moe was forced to leave the game on a cart after suffering a knee injury. Her prognosis is unknown.
“No one saw her performance in Oregon, but she was pretty close to moving herself into a starting position,” said Kiely. “Moe was doing fantastic. She was defensively strong and solid on the attack. Then you have a random fluke injury and it is heartbreaking.”
The Warriors will open GSAC play on Saturday when they travel to Fullerton to take on the Royals of Hope International (3-3). The game, which will be played on the campus of Cal State Fullerton, is scheduled for a noon kick-off.
