Oregon State Women lose to the best of the Pac-10 to close out the season

The Oregon State women's soccer squad put up the fight of their lives this weekend against the two toughest opponents they had to face all year, but came up short in both matches, falling to #2 UCLA (17-0-2) 2-1 in overtime on Friday night, then losing to defending national champions USC 1-0 Sunday morning. The Beavers held their own throughout most of the match against the second ranked team in the nation Friday night, going into halftime with a tie, 0-0, but in the 78th minute the Bruins took a 1-0 lead on a 35 yard shot by senior midfielder McCall Zerboni that was just out of the reach for Oregon State goalkeeper Colleen Boyd, hitting the top of the crossbar and bouncing just past the goal line. The Beavers pressured UCLA late in the match and in the 88th minute the Beavers found the equalizer by way of sophomore midfielder Courtney Wetzel's first goal of the season on a free kick from 35 yards out, which eventually sent the match into overtime. The goal was only the fourth that UCLA had given up all season. In overtime, however, Bruins sophomore defender Lauren Barnes, member of the United States national team found senior midfielder Catherine Calvert on a cross to set up the game winning goal. Calvert deflected the cross that hit off the post and into the back of the net to give UCLA their 17th win of the season and their sixth straight Pac-10 Conference championship. "UCLA is a great team. National team players all around, just a very good team. They have a very good chance of winning the national title this year," said Beavers head coach Linus Rhode. "I think our girls played a great game. I'm so proud of how far they have come, how much heart and desire they played for eachother. They played some good soccer. Defensively they worked hard for eachother, they battled, didn't make it easy for UCLA, we created some good stuff." While UCLA dominated most of the match on paper, outshooting Oregon State 21-12, only four of their shots were on goal, a credit to the Beavers defensively, who held in check a potent Bruins offense who had outscored their opponents 43-3 prior to the match. Offensively, the Beavers were led by juniors Najma Homidi and Rachael Axon, both who recorded three shots each. Wetzel, however, was the near-hero for the Beavers Friday night, who almost set up freshman Brittany Galindo with the game winning goal, but the shot was punched away by Bruin's senior goalkeeper Ashley Thompson. "I have been telling the team all year as long as we create chances we have a good opportunity to score," Rhode said. "I'm happy with that, sure we would like to see some more of them go in the back of the net, but in the end of the day we are creating good chances, and the game could have gone the other way against the number two team in the nation, so hats off to these ladies." To finish out the season the Beavers faced one of the more physical teams they had faced all season in the #9 ranked USC Trojans, who came away with the victory on a goal by sophomore forward Megan Ohai in the 13th minute, her fifth of the season. USC's offense sputtered after key player Ashli Sandoval, who led the Trojans in points, went down with injury in the 48th minute, but the injury played no factor whatsoever, as they held onto the one goal lead to leave Corvallis victorious. "The first fifteen minutes I don't think we went out all guns blazing, we held back a bit which worked against us because we gave up alot of chances and if we aren't going to go in hard with our challenges then they are going to get lucky chances and score goals off of them," Axon said. "I wouldn't say they were technically the best team, there are always going to be fit, fast and strong, but they tend to go with the direct route with the ball over the top, meaning that they won't get alot of chances on goal because they are missing out a good 60 yards just kicking that long ball." Much alike the UCLA match, the Beavers had numerous opportunities offensively, but USC goalkeeper Kristin Olsen, who came into the match with a .62 goal against average, made numerous saves, stoning away any chances Oregon State had at scoring the equalizer. A last ditch effort to tie the match came in the 90th minute for the Beavers on a through ball from Axon to Courtney Wetzel, but late game heroics were not in the cards for the Beavers Sunday morning as the shot was punched away by Olsen. "I thought that Oregon State had a good gameplan and they made things very difficult for us. They had some great opportunities, but our goalkeeper came up big, and I thought it was a good game," USC head coach Ali Khosroshahin said. "Our conference is probably the best conference in the country, us and the ACC. If you're competing for the Pac-10 championship you're going to competing for a national championship, and it is a credit to our conference."