Survive and advance: The Fort Lewis soccer story this weekend.
The men’s and women’s soccer teams were in tight battles over the weekend in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournaments. So tight that after two 10-minute overtime periods, both the men’s and the women’s teams went to penalty kicks to decide the winner.
Seeded third in the RMAC tournament, the men advanced to the semifinals over No. 6 MSU Denver thanks to a save by sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Martin on the sixth penalty kick taken against him on Sunday.
The women are the No. 7 seed in the RMAC tournament and upset No. 2 Colorado Mesa in the quarterfinals thanks to four saves during the penalty kicks by fifth-year goalkeeper Kaitlyn Rosenbaum and the winning penalty kick by sophomore Jenna Salazar on Monday.
FLC men’s soccer moved to 11-2-6 overall after the 2-2 tie in regulation against MSU Denver before the penalty kick win. MSU Denver finished its season 7-8-4 overall after the tie in regulation.
“It’s tournament time so as long as you as long as you advance, you're happy,” FLC men’s soccer head coach David Oberholtzer. “We played well enough to win. We had 26 shots, 11 on target. Anytime we have 11 shots on target, we would expect to win the game. Surely would have liked for it to end in regulation. But the guys worked hard and played well. Down late in the game, to continue fighting, find a goal to equalize and push it to overtime was great. It shows a ton of resiliency within the group.”
The Skyhawks opened up the scoring in the 10th minute. Senior Thomas Kirkham took a shot that was saved. Freshman midfielder Jacob Ramos found the rebound and put it in the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. FLC took that 1-0 lead into halftime.
MSU Denver responded in the second half with goals in the 60th and 76th minutes thanks to set pieces. The Roadrunners’ Phillie Villapudua headed the ball down on both occasions for his teammates to finish.
“That's something that we've talked about throughout the year,” Oberholtzer said about set-piece defense. “We've done better this year than we did the year prior at defending those. But those are situations where you can't switch off for a moment, and everybody's got to do their job in the moment. We certainly have talked about it and addressed it going into tonight's game.”
Freshman midfielder Fabrizio Aguilera had the equalizer in the 83rd minute. Junior midfielder David Citron had the assist.
Oberholtzer complimented his team for their composure during the penalty kicks. FLC went 6-6 on its penalty kicks. He said the team practices them and he decided on the order the day prior.
Sophomore forward Anton Hjalmarsson returned to the lineup after missing time due to a hamstring injury. He played 25 minutes off the bench. Junior defender Kaden Schufft also returned after missing time due to injury and played 65 minutes off the bench.
FLC plays at Regis in the semifinals tonight. The game hadn’t finished at the time this article was published. Regis beat FLC 2-1 in Durango on Oct. 13. Oberholtzer thought FLC was the better team the first time but it allowed two goals from set pieces.
If the Skyhawks drew that game, they would’ve won the league. The players know that and are ready to avenge that loss.
Women’s soccer turns 0-0 tie into penalty kick victory
Skyhawks women’s soccer head coach Damian Clarke tinkered with his starting backline of defenders down the final stretch of the regular season. It’s clearly worked.
FLC’s women’s soccer squad hasn’t conceded a goal in four games. The latest game was the biggest as the Skyhawks tied Colorado Mesa 0-0 after regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods. Then the Skyhawks won in penalty kicks 8-7 to move on to the RMAC semifinals.
“The last three games have been back against the wall for everybody,” Clarke said. “So tactics, sure, they're really important, but the most important part is the mindset of the group. It has grown into being a very tough do-what-it-takes-attitude. Kids make decisions at some point about how they want to be remembered. This group is desperate to continue playing with each other.”
FLC got the win despite being outshot 19-5 and 7-2 with shots on goal. Fifth-year goalkeeper Riley Bravin made five saves in the first half for FLC before Rosenbaum made two saves before the penalty kicks.
Clarke said he likes to have his best kickers kick first, third and fifth in the penalty kick order to ensure FLC stays in the game. He knew Rosenbaum would make some saves.
FLC plays on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at MSU Denver. The Skyhawks and Roadrunners tied 0-0 on Nov. 3 so another penalty kick shootout could be on the cards.
Women’s cross country makes national championships for second consecutive year
Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams had to battle a mix of snow and slick conditions up in Denver on Saturday at the South Central Regional. The women’s squad did enough to finish seventh as a team and qualify for the national championships for the second consecutive year.
Out of the 26 South Central Regional teams, 10 were nationally ranked teams, including FLC at No. 15.
“It’s definitely a sigh of relief,” FLC cross country women’s coach Gracen Key said. “The girls are excited. It's never a given that you're going to go but the expectation is we should be at the national meet. It wasn't something like, ‘Oh my gosh, we made it,’ and a crazy celebration. It was, ‘That's the standard.’ Coach Shawn (Jakubowski last year and the past two years has done a great job of building the program up. Now it's just a matter of continuing that tradition of making the national meet.”
Key said although the hosting program, MSU Denver, did a good job of clearing the course, there was still about a foot of snow for the first 600 meters of the race. The women’s race was helped by the men’s race being before and the men packing down the snowy areas a bit. Key estimated about a mile of the 3.7-mile course (6 kilometers) had snow on it while the rest of it was grass.
Junior Hannah Hartwell led FLC with a sixth-place finish in 21 minutes and 49.01 seconds, earning All-Region honors. Sophomore Linda Weigang was 11th in 22:09.38 and also earned All-Region honors. Junior Althea Griffith finished 50th in 23:43.55.
Sophomore Tessa Stadler finished 54th in 23:54.44 and junior Marisol Castilleja finished 77th as the final scoring runner in 24:23.98.
Key and her squad will travel to Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento, California, to compete for the NCAA Division II National Championships on Nov. 23. She’s excited for her girls to not run in snow and compete on a fast course in Sacramento.
On the men’s side, FLC did not make it as a team after finishing eighth in the men’s 10-kilometer race. Junior Elijah Smith did make it as an at-large individual after finishing 21st in 32:11.76 to earn All-Region honors.
Volleyball falls to CSU Pueblo in five sets in reverse sweep
No team wants to drop a match in any part of the season. But some matches mean more, especially to a team like FLC volleyball vying for an RMAC tournament spot.
The Skyhawks have been on the outside looking in at the RMAC tournament and needed a win at CSU Pueblo on Saturday. Instead, FLC blew a 2-0 set lead and lost 3-2.
FLC fell to 9-15 overall and 5-7 in the RMAC after the 25-18, 25-19, 15-25, 13-25,11-15 loss. CSU Pueblo improved to 15-9 overall and 8-4 in the RMAC after the win.
Sophomore outside hitter Alina Nunez led the Skyhawks with 14 kills. Senior outside hitter Alexis Hobie had 12 kills. Kaitlyn Hall led CSU Pueblo with 17 kills.
FLC returns home to play Colorado School of Mines on Friday at 6 p.m. and No. 5 MSU Denver on Saturday at 2 p.m. to close the regular season. The Skyhawks will likely have to win both matches to have a shot at the RMAC tournament. MSU Denver is 22-2 overall and 12-0 in the RMAC.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
