REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands women's soccer team (3-9, 2-5 SCIAC) led for the final 65 plus minutes as they took down Whittier College, 2-1, Saturday at Farquhar Field thanks to goals by First-Year's Claire Lucas (Tacoma, WA) and Taylor Tidquist (Snoqualmie, WA).
With no shots on goal for more than 24 minutes, Kate Wagner (San Jose, CA) brought the ball up the right side and sent the cross into the box where the ball short hopped Lucas, deflecting off her shin before spinning into the bottom left corner of the net for a 1-0 U of R lead in the 25th-minute.
The first look on target by the Poets came in the 31st when Nicole Immoos (San Luis Obispo, CA) made the save. She would make two more stops in the 38th before the Bulldogs transitioned the other way and made it 2-0 in the 39th.
Maddie Wallner (Littleton, CO) slipped the ball to Tidquist on her left. Tidquist took the shot and the Whittier keeper got her hand on the ball, but the remaining momentum and spin allowed it to find its way over the line to give Redlands a two-goal advantage.
Keira Hunt (Stony Brook, NY) forced two saves five minutes later coming on as a substitute as the Bulldogs remained on their front foot heading into the halftime break.
The first five attempts that found the goal in the second 45 came from Redlands as Mikaela Foster (Temecula, CA), Wallner, Madeline Tetens (San Diego, CA), Vanessa Martinez (Mission Hills, CA), and Amanda Bear (San Diego, CA) all tried to make it 3-0.
Head coach Suzette Soboti then made a keeper change as Rhiannon Waldschmidt (San Jose, CA) came on to give Immoos an extra breather the rest of the game, and after no shots by the Poets testing Immoos for more than 44 minutes, Waldschmidt had to make four saves in the first five minutes in goal.
Her fifth in 10 minutes came with less than a minute to play, but after diving to her right to keep the Poets scoreless, the ball deflected off her gloves to an attacker sitting at the far post who just touched the ball over the line with :54 seconds on the clock.
Redlands, though, was able to avoid any final attempt to steal a point by Whittier as they secured their second Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) win of the season.
It was an evenly played game with the Poets holding a 20-19 shot advantage, each team made eight saves, and Whittier was plus two in corners, 7-5, but the Bulldogs won the goal battle, 2-1.
Redlands now welcomes Chapman University to Farquhar Field this coming Wednesday, October 14 beginning at 7:00 p.m.
