Junior Chrissy King (above) and the Eagles rebounded from a 2-0 loss at Westmont College to beat San Diego Christian College 5-0 on Wednesday. | Job Ang/THE CHIMES
The Biola women’s soccer team suffered a loss at the hands of No. 15 Westmont College in a 2-0 decision in Santa Barbara last Saturday night, but followed it up with a 5-0 victory over San Diego Christian College.
Westmont struck first with an early goal in the half after some miscommunication between the Eagle defense. Westmont's Mallory Mitchell crossed a ball that landed in front of Aolani Rueff who was alone in the box; she shot the ball into the back of the net for the early lead.
“I think that we just didn't really show up and sometimes we've been struggling with that,” senior Katie Cabuling said. “Westmont came out on fire and ready to play.”
Ashley Correa scored the second goal for the Warriors off of a cross from Aolani Rueff in the 38th minute.
A hard-fought physical game
“We're definitely a team that plays on the ground,” Cabuling said. “I think that in the first half a lot of the play was in the air; that’s not really our strong suit.”
Westmont started and finished the game strong, dominating possession. They outshot the Eagles throughout the game, 17-5.
“As a team we just didn't really show up to play and play how we normally do,” Cabuling said. “In the second half we maybe had a couple more chances and I think we had the ball a little bit more, but it was just an off day for everyone.”
In a hard-fought physical game, the Eagles came out on top to defeat the San Diego Christian Hawks. Both teams came out strong in the first half but a goal from Biola came early as free kick by Cabuling was deflected by a Hawk defender and landed inside the net in the 12th minute.
Improving defending
The Eagle’s second goal came when junior Michelle Andre knocked in a corner from fellow junior Victoria Dalla Zanna.
Dalla Zanna scored the last goal of the half after receiving a pass from the middle of the pitch; she placed it in the top right of the net in the 42nd minute.
“We weren't that happy with our defending or our attacking last game,” head coach Todd Elkins said. “So we were trying to get better today by defending together and attaching together as a team as best we can; and I think the girls did a good job with that.”
In the 74th minute, a foul was called inside the box and senior Brittany Barr stepped to take it but hit the post that lead to another foul in favor of the Eagles. Barr repeated the penalty kick and netted the ball into the bottom left.
Eagles stay consistent with 6-5-1 record
The Eagles kept up the attack throughout the game. Senior Ashleigh Cooley managed to score the last goal for the Eagles with an assist by junior Chrissy King.
The Eagles now have an overall record 6-5-1 and a conference record of 3-2-0. Biola will face No. 11 Vanguard University on Saturday at Biola's Al Barbour Field with kickoff scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
“We want to put our focus real quickly on Saturday,” coach Elkins said. “We get a couple days to train; we take our preparation pretty serious to put ourselves in good position to win.”
