Athenas Defeats Regals in SCIAC Tournament Semifinal

After a hard fought battle, the Athenas soccer team has advanced to the SCIAC Tournament final for the second straight year after defeating Cal Lutheran 2-0. The semi-final game was a rematch of the conference tournament semi from 2007. CMS came in as the #1 seed after winning the regular season SCIAC title and Cal Lutheran was the fourth seed. The Regals battled hard and put the Athenas on their heels in the first half while the Athenas struggled to find a rhythm. However, the defense held Cal Lutheran to a limited number of chances and the game was tied 0-0 at half. CMS started the second half with a bit more confidence and maintained possession better. The team had several great opportunties early into the half. Then, at the 59:45 mark in the game, Lizzie Van Buskirk (SO, San Rafael) broke through on the left side from a nice through pass from Laura Hagen (JR, Bellevue, WA). Van Buskirk crossed a great ball into the box that Hagen was able to get a knee on and put into the left side of the goal to put the Athenas ahead. The Regals pushed back to try and get the equalizer, but at the 68:43 mark Julia Raney had a great individual effort fighting through several defenders to knock in the Athenas' second goal of the night. Cal Lutheran never let up, but were held scoreless. CMS now hosts the tournament final this Saturday, November 7th.  They will play Occidental at noon.