THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran women's soccer team picked up a much needed victory with a late goal to top the La Verne Leopards 2-1 on Wednesday night at William Rolland Stadium.
With the win, the Regals snap a two-game skid and are now tied with La Verne for fifth place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings. CLU sits just one point behind fourth-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps with the second round of conference action set to begin this Saturday.
Raquel Weckhurst continued her sensational scoring spree with her conference-leading 10th goal of the season to put the Violet and Gold on the board in the 20th minute. After a slow start to the match, Mallory Carcich passed a deep ball into the attacking third for a hustling Weckhurst. The sure-footed forward broke away from the defense and shot past the keeper to the left corner of the goal to give CLU the 1-0 advantage. Weckhurst has now scored in four of the last five games and has seven goals during that span.
The Regals nearly took a two goal lead after Carcich lined a free-kick into the box that was headed by Weckhurst, knocked around, and eventually found the back of the net, however CLU was called for a controversial offsides on the play.
La Verne took advantage of the opportunity and knotted the score at 1-1 just a short while later off a goal from Tatiana Reygoza in the 78th minute.
Hoping to prevent overtime, Weckhurst found herself in front of the pack with just a few minutes remaining in the match, but she was fouled hard at the top of the box to set up a free kick for CLU.
Sophomore defender Olivia Leyva stepped up to take the kick and drilled what looked like a goal, but hit just off the crossbar and deflected back into the box. Kali Youngdahl was in the right place at the right time and headed the ball into the back of the net for the game-winner in the 87th minute.
The Regals outshot the Leopards 23-8 in the match and both teams had three corner kicks apiece. Youngdahl led all players in the game with seven shots while Weckhurst was right behind her with six, five of which were on target. Emily Williams tallied three and Bianca Deardorff and Leyva each had a pair of shots. Stacy Choate-Ciletti made her first start of the season in goal for the Violet and Gold and picked up four saves.
Jasmine Valadez had a game-high 10 saves for the Leopards and Cambria Smith led La Verne with three shots.
Cal Lutheran (4-6-1, 3-3-1 SCIAC) will begin the second round of conference play with a road match at Chapman this Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:00 p.m.
Box Score: CLU 2, LV 1
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