Following a scoreless draw in Spokane on Sept. 22, the Walla Walla Community College women’s soccer team proceeded to win its next five matches in a row.
But the winning streak came to an end in a rematch with Spokane, as the Sasquatch shut out the Warriors once again while scoring off a pair of corner kicks to hand the Warriors a 2-0 loss in a pivotal NWAC East Region clash on the Tausick Way pitch on Wednesday.
Walla Walla (11-4-1 overall, 8-3-1 in the East) slipped to third place as the Warrior loss to Spokane, along with a North Idaho setback at Columbia Basin, completely reshuffled regional standings.
Spokane (8-1-3 in the East) jumped from third place to first, and North Idaho (8-2-2) dropped to second place.
Columbia Basin (7-2-4 in the East) stayed fourth, but pulled to within striking distance of WWCC with two games left in the regular season and the top three qualifying for the postseason tournament.
“I thought today we defended, for the most part, well in a playoff atmosphere against a quality team,” Warriors coach Jordan Hacker said. “If you have two mistakes, they’re going to capitalize on those mistakes.
“That was the story of today’s match, in my opinion.”
The Warriors next play at second-place North Idaho on Saturday, starting at noon, as the regional battle heats up.
While WWCC is at North Idaho on Saturday, Spokane hosts Columbia Basin.
Then on Wednesday, WWCC hosts Columbia Basin, with Spokane at North Idaho.
“Anything can happen,” Hacker said. “We go from second to third in a matter of 90 minutes. That’s how the East always is. It’s the toughest region in the NWAC.
“Any team can show up and win — it’s just a matter of which team wants to show up,” he continued. “We’ve proven that we can beat the best teams in the NWAC, we’ve lost to some quality teams like we did today.
“For me, it’s just a choice of the girls wanting to show up to play and a desire to want to be better than the ones across from them,” Hacker added. “I’d go to battle with this team any day of the week.”
Heading into the Wednesday rematch, WWCC had capped its five-game winning streak — outscoring the opposition a combined, 12-1, along the way — with three straight shutout wins.
But Spokane had an 8-2 advantage in corner kicks, using two of them to score on the WWCC defense.
“It was unfortunate, in the first 10 minutes, to give up goal on the corner, and then just a little miscommunication on the second corner,” Hacker said. “We kinda allowed them to go from there.”
Neither WWCC or Spokane saw many opportunities to challenge the opposing goalie.
Spokane scored first, with Kendall Bastine heading in a corner from Megan Wilkinson, around the fourth minute.
But the rest of the first half was back and forth around midfield.
Spokane took the first true shot on goal shortly before halftime, around the 45th minute, and Warrior goalie Danielle Dowd grabbed it on a bounce.
Spokane doubled its lead when the WWCC defense deflected another corner by Wilkinson into its own goal around the 58th minute.
“We controlled a lot of the possession, and a lot of things went well for us,” Hacker said. “Overall, I would say that the girls didn’t play bad — we just didn’t respond well to what little bit of adversity that we had previously the last couple of matches.
“We’d been able to bounce back from some bad performances, but all the credit to Spokane,” he continued. “They defended well and didn’t really allow us a chance to get dangerous.
“We got some down into their half quite a bit, but it never really came to anything dangerous other than the last couple of minutes when we got a corner there at the end.
“That’s the way soccer goes sometimes.”
Article by Hector del Castillo of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
