Ending its third straight year as Southern Division Western State Conference champions, the Pierce College’s women’s soccer team has again done itself proud.
Boasting an impressive overall record of 17 wins, two losses and 5 draws, the team went into the post season ranked as the no. 6 team in California at community college level.
At the end of last season, the team lost several seasoned veterans, including their talismanic all-time leading goal scorer Elia Petrosian.
This year’s team would notably have more freshmen rather than experienced sophomores.
Preseason began and new players came in and tried out. The process of elimination began as the coaches decided just who would make the cut. “We needed to establish a base. Improve the teamwork playing with each other,” said coach Victor Lopez.
The season began with a surprising 3-0 loss to Cuyamaca College in their first game, followed by a 2-0 win against L.A. Harbor College.
The Brahmas then played at the Victor Valley Tournament where they won two out of three games to become tournament champions.
Afterwards they faced rivals Moorpark College in their seventh game of the season and only managed a 2-2 draw, but the next set of games would find the Brahmas in scintillating form.
Their next 17 games, all wins with no losses, included 7-0 goal feasts over Antelope Valley, Oxnard and Santa Monica colleges.
Other impressive wins were against Citrus College where they won of 4-0 and two heavy wins against L.A. Valley College.
The first resulted in a 6-0 thrashing, while the second meet between the two teams was a 4-0 win. In this 17-game run to the Regionals post season tournament, the Pierce women’s soccer team kept a clean sheet for over 1530 minutes. In that span they also scored an amazing 51 goals.
The season didn’t come without a few talking points though. In their game against Santa Monica College, the team lost one of their most in-form players for the rest of the season.
During the game, midfielder Amanda Bernal had her knee clipped from behind and in the process tore her anterior cruciate ligament in her knee.
“There’s really no individuals in this team, it’s a unit,” said assistant coach Tony Ortega.
Luckily for the team, that was the only serious injury. The team coped without her, restructured their tactics and played superbly.
“The girls have improved tremendously,” said Ortega. “We lost our first game and haven’t lost since.”
“As a team they’re getting better, said Ortega. “They’re coming together as a team.”
Reflecting on this season, head coach Adolfo Perez gave his thoughts noting that at the very beginning “we started off slow, but finished really good especially in conference,” said Perez. “In some games, we played extraordinary.”
The team reached regionals, was ranked the no. 6 team in California, played against Cypress College in the first round in what would be a grueling match.
While the Brahmas grabbed the early lead in the 3rd minute, they were unable to come away with a win as the Chargers scored a goal early in the second half and one at the death in the 89th minute to end Pierce’s hopes of moving on to the second round.
It was one of only two low points in the whole season, but still there were positives from it. Pierce was Southern Division Western State Conference champions for the third time in a row, and their fifth time in seven years that they’ve accomplished this feat.
Next season looks as promising even though the team will be losing sophomores Marisela Escobar, Lindsey Liggera, Heather Painter, Kimber Oborn, Elizabeth Salguero and Mia Swafford. The majority of the team looks set to return in spring semester for conditioning in preparation for the next season. Next season looks promising already as the freshmen-turning-sophomores go in with more experience than they did this one.