Whitworth handed first conference defeat by Linfield College on the road
by Whitney Carter
The women’s soccer team suffered its first defeat during an away game last Saturday, Oct. 6, to the Linfield Wildcats.
The match ended in the first sudden death overtime period with a final score of Linfield 2, Whitworth 1.
Whitworth scored the first goal of the match in the 39th minute. Senior forward Katrin Grant received a pass from sophomore midfielder Aaren Sherpe and shot from the middle of the 18 for the goal.
Linfield came out after halftime and scored the second goal of the match to tie the game. The score remained tied up and the match went to overtime.
Senior defender and captain Kelsey Griswold said that it was a rough game.
“The game at heart was very gritty; it wasn’t a pretty game,” said Griswold. “I think we could have gotten more possession a little bit and held onto the ball a little bit, but I think for the way the game was the nature of playing Linfield, we did well.”
Linfield scored the final goal of the match in the first sudden death overtime period to finish off the game.
“It was a physical battle,” head coach Jael Hagerott said. “We played hard.”
Overall, Linfield seemingly controlled the match by outshooting Whitworth 34-6. Freshman goalkeeper Andrea Stump had nine saves to Linfield’s one.
“She played an awesome game. She had amazing saves,” said Griswold, “The goals were unlucky. She couldn’t get to them.”
Whitworth is now tied with Puget Sound atop the conference.
“We were ready. Linfield was coming off of two ties so we were expecting them to come out hard and come out rough and really take it to us and so we were kind of prepping for that,” Griswold said.
Freshman Tiara Pajimola is ranked second in NWC for total goals (6) and total points (14). She received a yellow card in the 76th minute of the match.
“I was getting fouled a lot and I had an opportunity one on one with the goalie and I had took a bad touch and reached and unfortunately she got injured and I got a card out of that,” Pajimola said. “That kind of made me put my head down for a couple minutes, but I think overall I pushed through to the end.”
This is the second overtime the Pirates have played this season in conference play. The first ended in a tie after two sudden death periods against PLU.
“I think that we never stopped, we worked our butts off, we worked really hard and really weathered their storm of them just running at us and we just kind of held together,” Griswold said. “I think we played defensively well and stayed with our marks and we really worked things out as the game went on.”
The Bucs are now 6-1-1 in conference and host the Whitman Missionaries on Thursday at 1:30.
“You have to bring it every day, we just have to rebound from this and be ready for our next game,” Hagerott said.
Contact Whitney Carter at wcarter15@my.whitworth.edu