October 20, 2008

Lady Tiger soccer split a pair of one-goal games

Coming off a 1-0 win over Hesston College Friday in Arkansas City, the Cowley College women’s soccer team had to leave early Saturday morning to play at Garden City. The Lady Tigers played valiantly before losing 2-1 on a goal with two seconds left in the second overtime.

The heartbreaking loss at Garden City was hard for the ladies to take.

“The girls were extremely disappointed after the game,” Cowley assistant coach Dane Straight said.

However, Straight was proud of the way the Lady Tigers competed considering they left Arkansas City at 3:30 a.m. Saturday to head to Garden City, and were without one of its top defenders, Allyson Duda, who had to miss her second straight game.

“The girls left everything they had out on the field,” Straight said.

Amber Hernandez scored her 23rd game of the season to put Cowley ahead 1-0 at the end of the first half. Garden City got a goal from Kristen Huffman nine minutes into the second half to tie the game at 1-1.

The game would remain tied through regulation and the first overtime. The teams appeared to be headed for a tie until Garden City scored with two seconds left in the second overtime.

On Friday, Cowley and Hesston appeared to be headed to overtime before Lady Tiger freshman Carol Rodrigues dribbled through two defenders and sent a shot into the corner of the goal with 4:10 remaining to lift Cowley to the 1-0 win.

With starting goalie Carly Budd suffering a bruised shin with 9:13 left to play, Katie Ybarra finished the game in goal. Ybarra made a couple of nice plays in goal to preserve the victory.

Cowley is now 7-8 overall and 4-6 in the Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division. The victory moves Garden City past the Lady Tigers into sixth place in the conference with a record of 7-6-1 overall and 4-5-1 in the Jayhawk East.

The Lady Tigers are currently seventh in Region VI, with the top-eight teams qualifying for the Region VI playoffs.

Cowley will play its final home game on Tuesday, as they will take on Coffeyville at 4 p.m.

“It will be important for the ladies to get that bad taste out of their mouth from Saturday and get their confidence back,” Straight said.