Oct. 29, 2006
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The No. 4 Santa Clara women's soccer team took a huge step in claiming at least a share of the 2006 West Coast Conference title with a 4-0 win Sunday afternoon over the San Francisco Dons. Fittingly enough on SCU's Senior Day, three goals were scored by seniors, as Marian Dalmy twice found the net, Bonnie Bowman scored the third goal, and freshman Katherine Reynolds scored the fourth. Senior goalkeeper Julie Ryder made six saves to earn her first shutout of the season.
With the win, the Broncos improve to 14-3-1 overall, and 4-1-1 in the WCC, keeping them tied with 13 points atop the WCC standings with Portland after the Pilots defeated the Pepperdine Waves 3-1 Sunday afternoon.
"One of our major goals in phase four of the season is to win the conference championship, and we know that we'll have at least a share of the title going into our last game at Saint Mary's," said head coach Jerry Smith. "We're excited about being in that position and having our fate in our hands. Hopefully we'll even get the chance to win an outright conference championship, but right now we're happy to still be in the hunt."
SCU will now close out the regular season with two games next week, the first a non-conference affair on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. at Cal, followed by the finale Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. in Moraga against Saint Mary's.
"First and foremost, I'm really happy for the seniors, they've put in four, and in some cases, five seasons of hard work into our program, and today was mostly about them and I thought they played extremely well," Smith said after Sunday's win. "Even some seniors that aren't regular starters for us played very well today."
Santa Clara started nine of the 10 seniors honored prior to Sunday's match, as Tiffany Roberts, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on Sept. 24, was unable to play. Behind the efforts of seniors Ryder, Dalmy, Bowman, Kelly Giddings, Casey Pleas, Carrie Schuler, Hillary Schwarzbach, Elyse Shelger, and Lauren Zealear, SCU outshot the Dons 18-10 Sunday afternoon on their way to the team's 14th win of the season.
Dalmy also assisted on Bowman's goal, on top of her two goals earlier. Meagan Snell and Jordan Angeli earned assists on Dalmy's second goal, while freshman Katherine Reynolds returned from injury to score her second goal of the year, as Lexi Orand and Casey Pleas registered the assists.
"It was great and so much fun, that was the point of today," Dalmy said after the win. "I just enjoyed myself and it was great having my friends out there with me."
The defense also did its part, as Ryder's six saves and the play of the back line accounted for Santa Clara's 11th shutout of the season. Ryder made a few great stops, deflecting a Jessica Gaskin shot which ended up hitting the post late in the game, and stopping a point-blank offering from USF's Hilary Fisher to preserve the shutout.
Dalmy got the scoring started in the 21st minute, recovering a loose ball in the box and beating USF keeper Katie Hodgson top shelf for her fourth goal of the year. She followed that up with her fifth of the year, and second of the match, seven minutes later off of a free kick situation. With Snell, Angeli, and Dalmy surrounding the dead ball, Snell's tap to Angeli was directed back to Dalmy, who drilled a bending shot past Hodgson into the far upper corner of the net.
Bowman got in on the scoring at the 60:50 mark, as Shelger found Dalmy streaking down the sidelines, who then crossed a ball through traffic right to Bowman, whose turnaround shot was true for her second goal of the season and the three-goal SCU lead.
Reynolds finished off the scoring in the 87th minute, as Pleas started the sequence with a pass to Orand, who got around the USF back line and fed a cross into the box that Reynolds buried for the match's final tally.