Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Sacramento State
Wildcats earn Big Sky berth with 1-0 win
10/24/2011 1:08:00 AM | Women's Soccer
OGDEN, Utah - For the Wildcats, it was mission accomplished in their final regular season match.
Freshman midfielder Kendra Bailey scored in the 65th minute to lift the Weber State University women's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Sacramento State on Sunday afternoon at Wildcat Soccer Field.
With the victory, Weber State advances to the Big Sky Conference postseason tournament for the first time since 2008. The Wildcats (4-2-1 Big Sky, 6-10-1 overall) will take the league's No. 3 seed and face No. 2 seed Portland State in the semifinal round of the tournament on Friday, Nov. 4th at 3 p.m. in Greeley, Colo.
Bailey's goal was her first of the season and came courtesy of senior Victoria Anderson's corner kick, with Anderson's crossing kick floating to the center of the goal, where Bailey redirected it off her head off the right post and into the net.
From that point on it was up to the Wildcats' defense to make it stand up as the Hornets pressed forward, desperately looking for the equalizer it needed to salvage its postseason hopes.
Weber State missed several quality opportunities to double-up the advantage after getting behind the Sacramento State defense in the final 25 minutes, but was just off target on its attempts and had to settle for preserving the one-goal advantage.
Sophomore goalkeeper Ryann Waldman made seven saves in capturing her fourth complete-match shutout of the season. It was the Wildcats' fifth shutout of the season overall and lowered the team's goals-against average to .98, the second-lowest average at the end of the regular season in school history.
Weber State advances to the Big Sky tournament for the 11th time in 15 seasons, breaking a two-year drought.
Prior to Sunday's match, the Wildcats honored the teams 10 seniors: Kirsten Anderson, Victoria Anderson, Jessie Baddley, Emily Freshman, Alyson Hansen, Kylie Johnson, Nicole Moore, Lindsay Ortgiesen, Collette Simmons and Roxanne Tebbs, who were playing their final home match at Wildcat Soccer Field.
Weber State coach Tim Crompton talks about the match
