CSR (Women's Soccer Advances to Second Round of NCAAs With 4-0 Win Over Washington & Jefferson)

From: Jeffrey Febus <jfebus@calvin.edu>
Date: Fri Nov 13 2009 - 19:00:06 EST

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR November 13, 2009 (Part One)

Women's Soccer Team Advances to Second Round of NCAA III Tournament With 4-0
Win Over W & J

WOMEN'S SOCCER
Calvin 4, Washington & Jefferson 0

(written by Calvin sports information student assistant Derek Niece)

You can never say never.

After what was thought to be a done season for the Knights, Calvin was given a
second chance with an at-large bid to the big dance where it was matched up at
home against the Washington and Jefferson Presidents Friday afternoon. Calvin
knew it could not take that opportunity for granted in this-win-or-go-home
tournament, and they came out with fire against Washington and Jefferson,
defeating them by a score of 4-0.

The match-up between Calvin and Washington Jefferson was the first ever
meeting between the schools, and they got to do battle Friday on a beautiful
West Michigan fall day here on Calvin’s campus.

The game started fairly back and forth with both teams looking to find some
weak spots in the opposing lineups. Calvin was the first to find that weak
spot as junior Carly Prins scored in the 7th minute of play off of a corner
kick from teammate Lauren Heyboer. Prins, who was named a 1st team All-MIAA
member earlier this week, got her head to the ball first, sending it straight
into the back of the net, giving Calvin the 1-0 lead.

“I’m not sure there are very many players in the MIAA or in Division III
that could potentially dominate in the air with the skills and abilities she
has,” Coach Mark Recker said of his star forward. “So she is definitely a
very important ingredient, but she would be the first to tell you that she
can’t do it alone, and there’s a lot of great players surrounding her
that allow her to do the things she does.”

After that goal the story of the half was in the Knights not being able to
capitalize on scoring chances, as Calvin was relentlessly seeking the
President’s goal. Their firepower was intense, but in the first half after
Prins’ initial goal, no one else was able to increase the Knights’ tally to
two.

At halftime the Knights held a 12-1 shots advantage over the Presidents and
5-0 corner kick advantage. But with only a 1-0 lead at the break, Calvin
definitely wasn’t able to breathe easily. Recker gave the team a good talk
at halftime and once the second half was underway, Calvin let everyone know
that the offense was only just getting going.

“I told them not to worry so much about trying to score goals,” Recker
said of his halftime talk that got the Knights going, “they just needed to
settle in and play their game and good things will happen.”

In the 69th minute of play, with a decent chunk of the second half already
gone, freshman midfielder Francesca Smith received a Mindy Capiscolto corner
kick, settled the ball, and then placed an accurate shot into the lower left
corner of the goal, upping Calvin’s lead to 2-0.

Smith was one of Calvin’s many freshmen who have made definite immediate
impacts on this team, contributing in valuable ways. On the stat sheet after
Friday’s match, freshman winger Jillian Honderd was attributed with only one
shot. But for those who were actually there, they saw her take ball after ball
down the right flank of the field, forcing corner kicks and getting crosses
into the box, essentially an offensive catalyst that contributed to many
attacks that the Knights poured on in the second half, including forcing the
corner kick that led to Smith’s goal.

“It’s that youthful energy and passion in front of the net that are
critical elements for each class,” Recker said of his first-year players,
“and we’re really thankful that out of this particular freshmen class
we’ve been able to get some quality minutes.”

Just four minutes after Smith gave the Knights a 2-0 lead, Prins connected on
her second corner kick from Lauren Heyboer, sending the ball into the upper
right half of the net with a finessed flick of her head.

Prins’ two goals were her sixth and seventh goals of the season. Prins
finished Friday’s match with six total shots, with her two headers going for
goals.

After that third goal the Presidents were basically in desperation mode trying
to keep their season alive. Their defense implemented what looked like an
offside trap in order to try and generate more offense, but the Knights took
advantage of that change with some consecutive breakaway plays, the most
notable one being a goal scored by freshman Liz Cancel in the 81st minute, her
fifth of the year.

Cancel received a long pass from Capiscolto and then took it up the left side
of the field, beat a defender and dribbled into the box with only the keeper to
beat. Cancel snuck the ball past the President goalie just as she attempted to
make a sliding stop, and the Knights were sitting pretty on a 4-0 lead with
only 8 minutes to play.

This would be the prevailing score as Washington and Jefferson was eliminated
and Calvin improved to an overall 2009 record of 15-4-1. As a whole, Calvin
out-shot the Presidents Friday by a margin of 30-3, with a 9-3 shots-on-goal
advantage. The firepower proved to be too much for the Presidents to handle
and with the win the Knights move on to a second round match-up against
Wittenberg University.

“As you move forward in the NCAA tournament each team becomes successively
stronger in terms of ability to counter or defend,” Recker said about how his
team will approach tomorrow’s second round match, “and potentially
opportunities may become more limited.”

“The tournament is really all about endurance because it falls at the end of
the regular season,” he continued, “so that’s how we’ll face it, hoping
we have enough left to get a win and move on.”

The match tomorrow [Saturday] will be held again at Calvin’s Zuidema Field
at 1:00 in the afternoon.

No matter how you look at it, you can never say never. The hopes and dreams
of the 2009 Calvin women’s soccer team are still alive.
Received on Fri Nov 13 19:01:58 2009

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