Women's Soccer Wins In OT Over Redlands

The CMS women's soccer team traveled to Redlands for a tough SCIAC Wednesday night match.  Both teams are fighting for a highly coveted spot in the SCIAC tournament.  CMS came into the night with a slight lead over Redlands for second place.  Both teams came out to play and quite a battle ensued.  In the opening 25 minutes, neither team secured much possession as both teams fought hard for the ball.  Redlands' speed proved dangerous on several attacks, especially down the outsides.  Athena keeper Molly Freed made one nice save early with a dive to her left.  In the 26th minute, one of the Redlands players ran over Freed and in the process earned her second yellow of the game and a subsequent red.  However, going down a player fired up the Redlands team and they took it to CMS for the remainder of the half.  Their speed in the attack was troublesome for the CMS defense.  Again, Freed came up with a big 1 v 1 save to keep the game tied at 0-0.  Redlands outshot CMS 8-2 in the first half. 

CMS tried to regroup at half and came up with a new plan to try and get numbers forward and spread out the Redlands team.  Credit is due Redlands for a stingy defense that led to several great counter attacks in the second half.  CMS kept fighting and created one dangerous corner and a few shots on goal in the second half, but had trouble breaking down Redlands' organized defense.  The second half ended still tied 0-0. 

CMS did not want the opportunity to slip by and pressured hard early in the first overtime period.  Finally, in the 95th minute, CMS earned a throw in on the right side deep in Redlands territory.  Liz Augustine threw the ball at Madi Shove's head, who flicked it onto a sprinting Annie Belanger who one timed her shot over the hands of the Redlands keeper to give CMS a 1-0 win. 

The Athenas return home Saturday, October 20 to play Chapman at 11:00 am.  A win could clinch a spot in the SCIAC tournament which begins October 31.