(SAN DIEGO)
Emma Thrapp's free-kick goal looked to give No. 7 PLNU Women's Soccer a win against visiting Sonoma State, but the Seawolves managed to find an equalizer late on to salvage a draw with the Sea Lions on Wednesday afternoon.
"It was fun to host Sonoma," Head Coach
Kristi Kiely said in praise of the preseason No. 20 ranked team by the United Soccer Coaches. "We have not seen them in my tenure so far, so it was fun to have a look at somebody different. We always want to play a top team and Sonoma continues to prove to be that."
In a battle of defending conference champions, PLNU in the PacWest and SSU in the CCAA, Thrapp gave the Sea Lions an edge with a well-struck set piece in the 70th minute.
After PacWest Player of the Week
Zoe Crockett drew a foul just outside the penalty area, Thrapp managed to get her shot up and down over the wall to break the deadlock.
"I want to give Zoe some credit to draw the foul there," Kiely said. "That is a tough situation for Thrapp to be in. You never know what to do with that ball (being so close to goal) and I thought she handled it very well. It's great to have her back in the group and I thought she looked good today."
Point Loma, who controlled 63% of the possession, appeared to be on its way to victory with Thrapp and the Sea Lion backline holding firm until the visitors found an equalizer in the 83rd minute.
"Obviously we're disappointed to let a 1-0 lead go in the last seven minutes," Kiely said. "To hold onto that would've been nice, especially because I thought we had a couple good opportunities there at the end. We were feeling really good about our performance and our ability to get in good goal-scoring situations. We just weren't able to finish."
After Sonoma State outshot Point Loma in the first half, 5-2, PLNU found a rhythm in the second period and created several scoring opportunities, holding a 12-5 advantage in shots after the break.
Thirteen minutes into the second half, forward
Alana Diaz picked the pocket of an opposing defender and darted toward goal on the dribble but her outside shot sailed high.
Right back
Taylor Christenson's cross a few minutes later found
Nicki Friedman at the back post, but her left-footed volley was kept out by a defender who slid over to block.
Christenson then won a ball and played out wide right to
Alison Pepper, who cut in on her left foot and just missed the target with a curled effort.
Within a minute of Pepper's near miss, Crockett drew the foul that set the stage for Thrapp.
After the visitors equalized 12 minutes after Point Loma's goal, the Sea Lions remained on the front foot in search of a winner.
Left back
Naomi Ellis served multiple dangerous balls into the box that just missed her teammates.
Christenson surged behind the Seawolf defense and squared a ball toward Diaz around the penalty spot, but her shot was stopped with a diving save.
With the 10-second countdown over the PA, winger
Bethany Arabe nearly beat the final horn after cutting onto her right foot and sending a dipping effort just over the crossbar.
"We have some good answers for different ways we think people might solve us," Kiely said of her team's ability to adjust to how the opponent is playing them. "We try to figure out how we'd try to beat us and be able to come up with different solutions to get out of those scenarios.
"I thought the girls solved it well. They made a couple adjustments at halftime and we were still able to find people we were looking to find."
While ultimately disappointed to not hold on to the shutout, Point Loma displayed a defense much more customary than the one seen in the Sea Lions' 5-4 win over Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday.
"Defensively I thought we were much stronger today," Kiely said. "Bummed to give up the goal. We need to keep a clean sheet. I'm very proud of the group's overall performance, though, especially the back line. I thought they cleaned it up quite a bit, as did the midfielders. We still created enough offensive opportunities to come away with the win."
Point Loma (3-0-2 overall) now hits the road for an away match at Cal State Los Angeles on Saturday. Kick-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
"Cal State LA is tough and are really hard to break down," Kiely said. "We know that and we'll spend time preparing. We'll need lots of people to step up. We've had a lot of games in a short amount of time, so we'll need to be ready. I appreciate our depth for that reason.
