Oregon State Women's Soccer Suffers Yet Another Heartbreaker, Ties Fresno State

The simplest of phrases uttered from the mouth of junior Najma Homidi easily described the night for the Oregon State women's soccer team. "You have got to be kidding me," she said right after the match, one which the Beavers (5-4-1) had in the bag if not for one quick lapse of concentration as Fresno State (3-7-1) scored in the 90th minute and the match ended in a 1-1 tie Friday night. As time wound down, Fresno State midfielder Krissy Looney set up for a corner kick; arched a gorgeous ball into the middle of the box and was headed in by sophomore defender Allyson Ventura. The equalizer was the deciding factor of the match, as the Bulldogs had been seeking their first goal of the match since the 49th minute when Homidi found the back of the net for the Beavers, giving them a 1-0 lead. "We were pretty distraught," said junior midfielder Rachael Axon. "We definitely deserved the game, a bit of a bummer, especially with three seconds left on the clock, but we have gone into overtime the last three weeks, so it's just how it goes." Much like the Weber State match last week in which Oregon State had numerous opportunities on goal, the Beavers out-shot the Bulldogs 18-7, but only found the back of the net once, with Homidi's lone goal in the match. "I think first half we didn't come out as sharp as we wanted to," Homidi said. "We didn't do the things we needed to do, so the opportunities weren't as great. In the second half there were opportunities, just like against Weber State that we didn't put away, simple as that." Junior defender Red Nixon led the Beavers with six shots, with one coming midway through the first overtime which would have ended the match, but the shot was just off. Little things seemed to be the name of the game for the Beavers Friday night as there were many good balls placed throughout the match, the ladies just could not capitalize. "When we go out, we panic," Axon said, "and lose at what we're best at, so we start hitting long balls and we're more of a possession team, if we can maintain what we are good at for the full 90 minutes than we can beat any team that we come up against." Physicality was also a factor in the match, as Fresno State was significantly bigger than the Beavers, which resulted in an abundance of fouls. Teams were about even in that aspect of the match, as the Bulldogs recorded ten fouls to Oregon State's nine, which resulted in numerous delays throughout the match, which seemed to kill any momentum that either team had going. "I think most teams we come up against are pretty physical anyway," Axon said, "so we are always ready for a good game. Fouls slow down your momentum; second half we definitely outplayed them, they got a lot more physical, which slowed down our rhythm, so it was hard to connect." Fresno State certainly had no quit in them at all Friday night, as they continued to battle back and create opportunities for themselves until they eventually came out with the equalizer they were looking for. It was a match that Oregon State deserved to win, but the result could have easily gone either way, and on this night neither team would come out on top. "We just wanted to come out here and prove something," said Fresno State goalkeeper Kaitlyn Revel. "We have two more games before our WAC season starts and we were just trying to play with a lot of heart." This was the eighth straight match that was decided by one goal or less for Oregon State, who opens up Pac-10 play next week against #20 California. Although they are ten matches into their season already, the Beavers still have some kinks to work out, and they must be done quickly in order to be successful in a tough Pac-10 conference. "Our first half wasn't as good, or as sharp as we need to be," Homidi said, "so just making those adjustments, making sure that everyone is sharp and on their game. So if everybody is on their game then we will be fine against Cal and Stanford."