Women's Soccer Ends WCC Season This Friday Against Pepperdine
10/23/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 23, 2000
SPOKANE, Wash. - LAST TIME OUT: Gonzaga fell to 0-6 in the West Coast Conference as the Zags fell against Loyola Marymount in a heart-breaking 3-2 loss during a pouring rain at Martin Field. After LMU jumped on the board just 43 seconds into the match. Gonzaga quickly regrouped and took a 2-1 lead into the half as Sara Streufert scored two goals both assisted by freshman Kelly Leffel. Gina Legaz had a solid first half after allowing the early goal turning away several LMU scoring opportunities. Gonzaga exited the locker room at halftime confident at a shot for their first WCC win of the year. The Zags just missed extending their lead to 4-1 when Kelly Leffel missed an open goal from the near left side and was stopped point blank on another opportunity by LMU goalkeeper Tracy Sharp at the top of the box. Loyola Marymount evened the score at 2-2 with a score on an indirect kick and eventually won the match on a header with just 9 minutes remaining in the contest. Gonzaga outplayed LMU in the second half but could not secure the victory dropping their 8th straight WCC match dating back to last season.
VS. PEPPERDINE: This will be the eighth match between Pepperdine and Gonzaga with the Waves leading the all-time series 6-0-1. Gonzaga has played Pepperdine close in the last couple of years, falling in overtime three seasons ago and notching a tie two seasons ago. Pepperdine has only scored five goals against Gonzaga when visiting the Zags at Martin Field. In 1998 the two teams battled to a 0-0 tie as Gina Legaz turned away 10 Waves shots to give GU the tie. The Zags will once again look to Legaz to turn in a solid performance as the senior winds down her career at Gonzaga with lowest career goals-against-average at 2.72. Gonzaga will need to find some offense that it has lacked in recent years against the Waves, tallying only one goal in the last five matches against Pepperdine.
COACH STILES RETURNS FOR SECOND SEASON: Gonzaga head coach Shannon Stiles is in the middle of her second season guiding the Bulldogs soccer program. Her career record of 10-26-0 is second all-time at Gonzaga. Stiles needs just one more conference victory and six overall wins to become the school's leader in both categories. In her rookie campaign, Stiles coached the Bulldogs to their second most successful season in school history with a 7-13-0 record. Although the Zags finished 1-6 in the West Coast Conference, it marked only the second time the team had won a WCC game and first time Gonzaga had not finished last in the WCC.
STREUFERT CLOSES ON 100 POINT PLATEAU: With her two goals and four points against Loyola Marymount in the Bulldogs loss, senior Sara Streufert moved closer to reaching the 100 point plateau for her career. She now has 26 points on the season giving her 97 points for her career. Gonzaga has two home matches left on the season for Streufert to crack to 100-point barrier.
STREUFERT REACHES MILESTONE: With her two goals against Loyola Marymount during the weekend loss, Sara Streufert reached another West Coast Conference milestone as she became just the ninth player to score at least 40 goals. Streufert now ranks 9th on the list with 41 career goals and has two matches left to leapfrog two players and end her career in seven place. Standing in Streufert's way are former Portland Pilot Wynne McIntosh (42 goals) and former Saint Mary's Gael Lori Hokerson (43 goals).
BACK ON THE BOARD: With two goals on Friday against Loyola Marymount, Gonzaga avoided matching its longest scoreless skid of the season set at the opening of October. Gonzaga has only put balls in the back of the net during two of its last seven matches, slowing down what appeared to be a record setting year for goals scored. Gonzaga now has 29 goals on the season and is five short of matching its school record of 34 goals set last season. The Zags are currently one assist shy of matching their school record 26 assists set last season.
LEFFEL MOVES UP FIELD: After starting the season as a defender, freshman Kelly Leffel seems to have found her natural position moving into the forward role during the last seven games. During GU's match against Loyola Marymount, Leffel assisted both of Sara Streufert's goals and had two additional goal scoring opportunities. She moved into a three-way for scoring with seven points joining Katie Carpenter and Katie O'Brien.
LAST WCC POINT CHANCE: Gonzaga will wrap up its 2000 West Coast Conference season on Friday with a match against Pepperdine. Gonzaga will need to win or tie the match to score its first conference points of the season and avoid not scoring a WCC point for the first time since 1996, the year before this year's senior class came to Gonzaga. Pepperdine comes into the match with only one conference victory on the season, but the Waves have been successful outside the WCC posting a 10-1-1 non-conference record.
