Yeowomen Falter

Shady Scene: The opposition mounts an attack under the cover of the oak. (photo by Brian Hodgkin)

The Oberlin College women's soccer team brought their season to a disheartening close last weekend with a loss to Walsh. The Yeowomen lost their last five games to finish seventh in the conference with a record of 2-6-0 and 5-11-0 overall.

The most devastating of these losses came early in the month against Ohio Wesleyan. The game was a night game at OWU, and everything seemed to be going against Oberlin. The home team took early control scoring five goals in the first half. The Yeowomen came back after the half with the goal of holding the opposition scoreless. They were almost successful, but Ohio Wesleyan scored three quick goals in the final minutes to hand Oberlin 8-0 loss, the worst of the season.

"They're probably the most explosive scoring team in the conference," Head Coach Jane Wildman said. Ohio Wesleyan will play Allegheny Saturday for the conference championship.

Allegheny was the next team that Oberlin faced. Allegheny jumped out to an early lead scoring two fast goals and a third goal before the half to grab a commanding lead. However, this time Oberlin was successful in holding the opposition scoreless in the second half.

"We were a little bit stunned," said Wildman. "We knew they were one of the top teams in the conference, but we were caught off guard a little bit."

In their next match, the Yeowomen fared much better. They were up against Wittenberg. The game was even for pretty much the entire match except that Wittenberg had a few more shots than Oberlin. The game remained scoreless until the eighty-fifth minute of play when Wittenerg tucked a goal into the back of the net. Oberlin had to accept the loss despite excellent play in the midfield and some excellent clearances out of the back.

In their next match Oberlin had to try to overcome the weather first and then Wooster. The field was very wet and the play was usually pretty messy. Wooster was able to capitalize where Oberlin could not, and the Yeowomen had to come home with another loss.

"We did create some opportunities, but we didn't get the shots off that we should have," Wildman said. "Sometimes I think the players are a little tentative about shooting."

In their final game of the season, Oberlin had to face Walsh for yet another hard match. Walsh took a one nothing lead, but in the last minutes of play sophomore Courtney Stackhouse scored a goal sending the game into overtime. Unfortunately the referee chose to make a rare call in what had been a quiet game, giving Walsh a penalty kick, which they scored, winning the game and giving Oberlin the final loss of their season.

The Yeowomen finished with one more conference victory than last year. "Overall in conference play we competed a lot better than we did last year," said Wildman.

"I don't think the record is indicative of how we played," said sophomore Courtney Stackhouse. "A lot of us had never played together, and we really gelled together."

We did the best that we could with the players that we had," said Wildman. "The players that we have worked extremely hard. They gave it everything we had. I'm not really judging it by wins and losses. I think this years team was much more positive in general. They fought every game to the end."