A spurt of early second half goals caused the Caltech women’s soccer team to give visiting Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges a scare in the 2017 season finale on Sunday. On the heels of a decent first half in which Caltech surrendered two tough goals to the Athenas, the Beavers brought an immediate energy to the second half […]
A spurt of early second half goals caused the Caltech women’s soccer team to give visiting Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges a scare in the 2017 season finale on Sunday.
On the heels of a decent first half in which Caltech surrendered two tough goals to the Athenas, the Beavers brought an immediate energy to the second half and got on the board thanks in part to two very different scoring plays. First, senior Caroline Atyeo (Parkland, Fla. / Marjory Stoneman Douglas), in her final game in a Caltech uniform found a lane for freshman Netra Ravishankar (Fremont, Calif. / American) to bury a short range shot into the right side of the net in the 48th minute. Just over three minutes later, sophomore Noelle Davis (Fort Worth, Texas / Texas Acad. of Math & Science) put pressure on the CMS goalkeeper and following a defensive gaff from the Athenas, Davis retook possession and followed the ball into the net to knot the game at two and breathe life and hope into the Beavers.
Freshman goalkeeper Kali Drango (Lake Oswego, Ore. / Lake Oswego) kept the Beavers in the game late with six saves in the face of a strong, steady CMS attack. The Athenas’ deep squad ultimately proved to be too much for Head Coach Taylor Houck’s young team to overcome but the Beavers’ tenacity and ability to respond early in the second half speaks volumes about the team’s current standing.
“The work ethic of this group has shown up on the field often this season and particularly in the second half of today’s game,” Houck said. “There is no quit in this team and as we grow together and begin to build on our experience and chemistry the end results should start to turn in our favor.”
Ravishankar, along with fellow freshman Krystin Brown (Lake Forest, Calif. / Trabuco Hills) led the team with five goals and each scored the first two in team history in the team’s trip to Alvernia University last month.
Caltech women’s soccer wrapped its first season with two victories, both of which came in two different varieties. Another strong recruiting class could have the upstart Beavers in a position to contend for at least one SCIAC victory in its sophomore season as a program.
