Women's Soccer trips in playoffs

Justin Barnes

Sports Editor

The 2005 Shoreline Community College Women's Soccer team has set the mark for years to come. With this year's team going the farthest in their short ten-year college history, next year will be no walk in the park.

While the Lady Dolphins have proved themselves to be among the best soccer teams in the entire NWAACC (Northwest Athletics Association of Community Colleges), they fell just short of the NWAACC title last weekend in Tukwila, WA.

Ranked 1st in the North division, the Lady Dolphins were matched against number 1 seed in the South division, Walla Walla Community College for the first game of the playoffs at Starfire Soccer Complex.

NWAACC playoffs for the 2005 season were held at a massive complex. With four outdoor turf soccer fields, a huge structure with one indoor field, balcony seating with spectacular views of the fields, and a big screen scoreboard, there was no better place to hold the playoffs which arguably were the biggest games these teams will play this year.

This day there was also a nine year-old girls soccer tournament on three of the fields, and I was utterly speechless by the level of play and discipline the girls had at such a young age. With temperatures down in the high 30's to low 40's, I sat sipping on my cup of green tea while my toes attempted to fend off the threatening frost-bite hell that was closing in. What else could I expect on a November morning in Washington? Well, maybe some rain, but I was lucky so far. The setting was perfect for the SCC soccer team to compete to be the best team in NWAACC -- almost.

Walla Walla Community College proved early in the game how they carried their perfect 22-0-3 record throughout the season by keeping the ball in SCC territory, and taking numerous goal attempts all while controlling the pace of the contest.

Early in the first half, SCC let WWCC players know the game would be physical. In the first five minutes of the contest, a WWCC player was body-checked to the ground in an impressive spectacle of face-to-ground connection. Commonly referred to as 'ear-holed' in football terms, the player was slow to get up, and SCC proved to be physically dominating throughout the game by punishing many more players who entered their realm.

At the 23:00 mark, two corner kicks were blocked by keeper Benson, and the intensity picked up once again as the Lady Dolphins found themselves playing defense for most of the first half.

In the final thirty seconds of the first half, WWCC broke free and took a shot that snuck by Benson for a score to make it WWCC 1 - SCC 0 at halftime.

Early in the second half, a corner kick by WWCC was a perfect assist for a head-in goal to make the score 2-0. At the 27:00 mark, an identical corner kick to head-in goal made the score 3-0.

SCC quickly retaliated with two quick goal attempts, but one shot went wide left and the other was blocked by WWCC's keeper. Intensity started to stumble as the Lady Dolphins watched time run down into the final minutes of the match. With 20 minutes left in the game, a WWCC striker entered the goalie box. In an attempt to block the ball, Benson made contact with the player which set up a penalty shot. The kick was good, and the score was now 4-0.

Slowly the wheels started to come off for the Lady Dolphin's who watched their playoff hopes run out with one last goal attempt by Sara Hansen which was blocked. The score remained Walla Walla Community College 4, Shoreline Community College 0.

The consolation game was to be played the next day vs. Highline Community College which the Lady Dolphins also lost, giving the Shoreline Community College Women's Soccer team 4th place in the NWAACC.