Oct. 17, 2008
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara women's soccer team drew a 1-1 tie in double overtime versus Saint Mary's College Friday night at Buck Shaw Stadium. Freshman Jenny LaPonte scored her third goal of the year in the 49th minute to tie the score, 1-1, in the second half. Maxine Goynes shot on goal was blocked by Saint Mary's keeper Tara Larson and an oncoming LaPonte followed through to get the lone goal for the Broncos.
Santa Clara who was statistically the better team came out with a lot of momentum firing shots on the Gaels keeper Larson. In the first half, the Broncos had 11 shots, three of which were on goal, and had eight corner kicks. Head coach Jerry Smith changed up his lineup going into today's game, to fill the void that missing forward tri-captain Kiki Bosio left, as she is injured and is expected to miss the rest of the season. Fellow tri-captain, sophomore Goynes, who had played in the last 14 games at defender, moved up front to striker, alongside Courtney Lewis, both forwards had shots on goals. Katherine Reynolds stayed in midfield, as she has been playing in the wing position in the last few games, and Lindsey Wicher came in at left back. Kathleen Matthew came in at right back in place of a starting Alyssa Chun, who moved from midfield to defender, in this evening's game.
The aggressive SCU squad kept the ball on Saint Mary's side for most of the first half, but just into the 33rd minute the Gaels Danielle Spann was able to cross the ball to the center of the box to Jessica Menzhuber. Menzhuber shot the ball to the far corner of the box past Santa Clara's keeper Meagan McCray into the far corner, to give SMC the 1-0 advantage. McCray posted three saves in the 110 minute game on Saint Mary's 10 shots, four of which were on goal.
"I am very happy that we were the better team out there," said head coach Jerry Smith. "We played very well, which is good, but getting a win would have been much better. Hopefully we can build upon that and come off the momentum of this game and have a winning result Sunday versus USF."
The Broncos who had 18 shots and eight on goal, will host the University of San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. at Buck Shaw Stadium.