Breakout
season falls short for 49ers
Abie
Curry
Lauren
Doffing
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
One
victory, one goal, one point is what prevented
the Long Beach State women's soccer team
from playing in their first ever Big West
Conference tournament. The 49ers needed
only to tie UC Riverside Sunday afternoon
at Riverside to secure one of the four-playoff
spots in the Big West Tournament.
The
tie would have given LBSU one point and
a third place finish in the Big West. Instead
the 49ers Cinderella-like season came to
an end when the 49ers lost its last game
of the 2003 season 1-0 against UCR. The
loss put LBSU in a fourth place tie with
UC Irvine, who lost to Cal State Fullerton
3-1 that same day. The Anteaters won the
tiebreaker after defeating LBSU 3-2 in overtime
on Tuesday last week putting them in and
the 49ers out.
"It
feels terrible," said LBSU women's
soccer head coach Peter Reynaud about not
getting into the tournament. "One game
would have given us a winning season and
put us into the playoffs."
UC
Riverside scored in the third minute of
the game when Vanessa Chanez received a
cross pass and headed it in to give the
Highlanders the only goal of the game and
a spot in the playoffs.
The
49ers had several opportunities to tie the
game, but couldn't get its shots to go in.
Erin Empting took a shot that missed. Freshman
Nicole Cross took several shots that never
found the back of the net. Freshman Amber
Oliveira came close when her shot hit the
top of the cross bar.
"It
was a long game," said assistant coach
Sara Yuin. "The girls were playing
really hard. Things just didn't go our way.
We didn't have any luck and sometimes you
need luck. You need a good team, but you
also need luck to win and to keep up morale."
A
little luck and the 49ers might have made
it into the playoffs. Fewer injuries would
have also helped The Beach win a few more
games. LBSU lost one of its best defenders,
Natalie Messina, very early in the season.
Messina suffered a lower left leg injury
in a game at Stanford on Aug. 31. Messina
received a medical red shirt for the year.
Injuries to other players, who red shirted,
such as Alex Rowanski (back), Bethany Hayes
(leg), Kacee Bunton (knee) and Nori Readdy
(transfer) would all have made a big difference
had they been healthy and able to play said
Reynuad.
"All
those girls would have been in the starting
line up," said Reynaud. "Natalie
was the biggest loss. Losing her alone cost
us at least two games in conference."
Having
to play more road games was also a factor
for the 49ers. The Beach had to play its
last three games on the road.
"If
our schedule was reversed and we had to
play four road games instead of five that
would have made a difference," said
Reynaud. "Road games are very tough.
It's tough to play three games on the road
in six days in soccer. It's too much to
ask of these girls."
Despite
the difficult preseason, road games and
injuries the 49ers had their best season
in their six-year history since the team
was inaugurated in 1998. The team finished
(9-9-0, 5-4-0 Big West) with a record tying
nine wins, its first .500 season and a school
record five conference wins. The team has
never won more than four games in conference
and the last time The Beach won nine games
was in 1998 under head coach Julie Cochran.
The
team will only lose two players, both senior
co-captains Abie Curry and Lauren Doffing
graduate this year. Both players were a
big reason for the team's success. Curry
will leave as the schools all-time leader
in points (36) and goals (16) scored. Doffing
leaves having scored four career goals and
playing in 61 matches for the 49ers.
"We're
a very young team," said Yudin. "We
have a lot of freshman. It bolds well for
the future. Things look very promising for
us next season"
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