The Lady Olympians soccer team finished their season with a 11-5-5 record making them qualify for playoffs. They took on Southwestern College on Nov 15 and won 2-0. They then moved on to Santa Barbara City College on Nov 17. They played a rough game and ended up losing 3-1 in overtime.
The game started out slowly with the first goal not scored until 55 minutes into the game. It was scored by Santa Barbara’s Forward Isabella Viana. Then Mesa answered back with a goal in the 74th minute of the game. The goal was scored by Defender Brianna Gonzalez and was assisted by Defender Karlyn Ironside.
“It was an equal game for the most part, I think them [Santa Barbara City College] being a higher seed intimidated us a little but we went up there and made them struggle even going into double overtime. Unfortunately, they moved onto the next round of playoffs,” said Midfielder Leslie Barreras. The Lady Olympians put up a fight in overtime for a win. The overtime started and Mesa fought hard for a goal but didn’t even get a shot on goal while Santa Barbara had six shots on goal. Mesa’s goalie Alyssa Warner blocked all of the shots on goal.
This started a second overtime, as the game was still tied 1-1. Santa Barbara scored a goal in the 115th minute of the game. Defender Nicole Van Sickle made the goal and was assisted by Viana and Midfielder Ashlee Schouten. Then five minutes later Santa Barbara’s Forward Dominique Mihaljevic scored the final goal and was assisted by Viana. This ended the game with the score of Santa Barbara City College winning 3-1.
Barreras later reminisced about the season saying, “This season was definitely a roller coaster, we started off a bit weak since we did not have much chemistry with each other but throughout the season we started putting together everything. We practiced and played for one another, that is where most of our success came from and this group of girls made my last soccer season at Mesa Community College memorable!” The Lady Olympians ended their season with a 11-5-5 record.