(SAN DIEGO) No. 13 PLNU Women's Soccer dominated the second half of its Tuesday home match against preseason ranked No. 10 Western Washington, fighting back from a halftime deficit to earn a 1-1 tie.
"I was very proud of the team's response," PLNU Head Coach
Kristi Kiely said. "I would have loved for them to have been rewarded but it's great learning for the rest of the season. To play the No. 10 team in the country the third game in and to have that kind of response being down 1-0 is huge."
The Sea Lions kept the pressure on the Vikings for the entirety of the second half, outshooting the visitors 11-4 after halftime, and were finally rewarded in the 75th minute when
Bethany Arabe equalized.
Off a
Naomi Ellis throw-in, forward
Zoe Crockett spun her defender and played a ball out wide left to Arabe, who cut inside on her right foot and curled a shot past a diving goalkeeper to level the score.
"Good for Bethany for taking a chance well," Kiely said. "That's what we talked about today, taking your chances well because you never know against top teams like Western how many you're going to get."
As the ball swung out wide to Arabe, she said she took a deep breath to maintain her composure in the moment.
"The biggest way to be successful in front of goal is composure and confidence," Arabe said. "We were hungry and not satisfied with the result after the first half. We wanted to keep hunting for that goal."
It was a just reward for PLNU, who trailed 1-0 after conceding a 33rd minute penalty kick goal but went on the offensive in the second half.
Alana Diaz was a sparkplug for the Sea Lions, serving several dangerous crosses and forcing multiple saves out of the opposing goalkeeper. Arabe and fellow winger
Alison Pepper caused problems as well from the wide areas.
"All three of them were running at the backs and I thought they were really difficult to defend," Kiely said.
Diaz forced a diving save in the 59th minute before a few minutes later her cross found a sliding Arabe, whose outside-of-the-right-foot volley was directed goal bound only to be blocked by the head of a defender.
Not long after, Diaz sprayed a ball out wide to Pepper, whose back-post cross found
Nicki Friedman. Her shot was blocked and pinballed around the box before being cleared to safety.
Diaz then slalomed past a few defenders in the 69th minute, but her shot from the top of the box was saved, before the Sea Lions were finally able to find an equalizer six minutes later through Arabe.
PLNU remained on the front foot, as Arabe almost added a second but her volley off a Diaz cross was saved and just narrowly bounced past an awaiting Crockett.
Emma Rogers' corner-kick delivery got over the head of an outstretched goalkeeper into a dangerous area, but
Mara Sovde's short-hop volley couldn't find the target.
Arabe was able to muster a shot right before the final horn sounded, but it was straight at the goalkeeper and Point Loma was forced to settle for a draw.
"I wish that our hard work would've paid off with a win, but we're satisfied with how well we fought and got a good result," Arabe said.
Point Loma showed its credentials on Tuesday against the team that has eliminated the Sea Lions from the NCAA Regional in each of PLNU's last two appearances.
"This game was certainly motivating," Kiely said. "It was fun to have them down here. We've gone up there a number of times in the past few years.
"Every player this week helped prepare us. It genuinely feels like a team win because the group that's playing against the starting group in training has done nothing but work hard to prep them."
Point Loma (2-0-1 overall) returns to PLNU Soccer Field on Saturday at 2 p.m. to take on Cal State San Bernardino.
