Athena Soccer Loses Heartbreaker At Cal Lutheran

The women's soccer team traveled to Cal Lutheran on Saturday night to take on SCIAC leading Regals.  It was Cal Lu's senior night, but the Athenas were the ones to come out strong in the first half.  They immediately put Cal Lu under pressure and created several good scoring opportunities.  Unfortunately, they lacked the ability to get a quality shot off of those chances, so did not convert though they had a good majority of the run of play in the first half. 

Cal Lu recommitted themselves at half and came out as a new team.  They immediately turned the tables and from kick off controlled the ball and threatened the CMS goal relentlessly.  The defense held tough for most of the half, lead by keeper Molly Freed and defenders Sara Tweedy, Sam Kunz, Laura Hayward, and Kerry Moller.  Occasionally, there would be life in the CMS attack, but not with enough regularity to keep the ball out of CMS's defensive end.  With a little less then 10 minutes to play, Cal Lu finally converted one of its numerous second half chances and the Athenas were down 1-0.  In those final minutes, the CMS offense came alive again and had several great shots on goal, but the luck did not go their way and the game ended with Cal Lu winning 1-0. 

This was the last regular season conference game, so CMS tied for second in league at 9-5 with Chapman.  Chapman earned the tie breaker against CMS with their win over Cal Lu so will host CMS in a semifinal conference tournament match this Wednesday.  CMS hopes to earn a return trip to the tournament final on Saturday with a win over Chapman.