November 16, 2002

UCSC Women's Soccer loses in Regionals; Chapman, Puget Sound advance

UCSC -- The UCSC Women's Soccer team saw its season end on Saturday, as the host team for the NCAA Western Regionals.

The host Banana Slugs saw their season end Saturday despite playing a gritty match against visiting Chapman, losing on penalty kicks, 4-3 with the score tied at 1-1.

Above - UCSC Junior Midfielder Karen Nycz scored to send the game into overtime, but Jill Ferreira and Chapman would win on penalty kicks. Below - Dusty Marcell and Puget Sound held off Claremont Mudd-Scripps, 4-0.

Chapman's Alyce Perry started the scoring in the first half, and UCSC Junior Midfielder Karen Nycz was able to answer in the second to send the game into overtime. Two 10-minute overtime periods were unable to determine a winner, and so the game went to penalty kicks.

After going up 1-0 in the first frame, UCSC missed back-to-back kicks and Chapman capitalized to end UCSC's run.

Earlier in the day, Puget Sound would soundly defeat Claremont Mudd-Scripps, 4-0.

The Logger's Courtney Kar came off the bench to score two goals and Elizabeth Pitman and Victoria Trotta each added a goal.

Puget Sound will meet Chapman on Sunday for the right to advance to the quarterfinals. Game time is set at 1:00 pm at the Lower East Field.

Despite UCSC's loss, this season has included some tremendous achievements for the UCSC Women's Soccer team. The team made the postseason for the third time in four years, and this was the first time ever UCSC has hosted an NCAA Soccer Regional Championship. On October 10, a school record was set as the team blew out Menlo College, 20-0. It was both the most goals scored in team history and the largest margin of victory. The team developed many excellent young players, including Freshman Forward Caitlin Carpenter, who started every match of the season, and Freshman Kara Deyhle, who by the end of the season had been named the team's starting goalkeeper.

Though it will lose several key players to graduation, the future of the program has only become stronger.