The Delta College women’s soccer team (15-3-3, 8-3-3 Big 8) ended the regular season with a 2-0 shutout over the visiting Diablo Valley College Vikings (8-5-7, 5-4-5 Big 8) on Nov. 13 at University of the Pacific’s Gardemeyer Field.
“This was the perfect way for us to end our conference season and head into the postseason. We tied at DVC so we were pretty hungry,” said sophomore goalkeeper Shaunna Ridge. “… We really wanted to push ourselves and get back into the right frame of mind and get that momentum going for the postseason.”
Momentum was established early in the 16th minute as freshman forward Kiera “Kiki” Muñiz received a precise pass from teammate Kayla Bender and proceeded to race past three defenders on the way to her team high 15th goal of the season.
“I liked a lot of the things that we did attacking-wise today,” said Head Coach Adrienne Sorenson. “I thought defensively there were a couple things early that we needed to solve with our outside backs, but once they made the adjustment I thought we looked a lot better.”
Delta College went on to add another goal 15 minutes later as freshman defender Ashlyn Sotelo scored her second goal of the season on a pass from sophomore forward Rachel Siañez.
“I’m very proud of our team and how we’ve been working. We’ve been staying hungry,” said Siañez. “Coming out here today and knowing what we wanted and scoring quickly in the first half is exactly what we wanted to do and we accomplished our goals today.”
Diablo Valley on the other hand wasn’t able to execute its goals in the game as Ridge refused to allow a score by recording five saves, one of which was a penalty kick, against the Vikings.
“Our center backs and goalkeeping have been really lights out through the whole season,” said coach Sorenson. “Shaunna Ridge has really come up huge in goal for us and Yesi (Piceno) and Ashlyn (Sotelo), they just really limit opportunities for the other team so Shaunna’s ready to step up when she needs to make a save so it’s a credit to our whole backline, really our team defending.”
This helped bring about the Mustangs’ 15th shutout (leads the state of California) and 15th victory of the season, the most in program history.
“Since coach Adrienne (Sorenson) has been here our program has slowly moved up and up and up,” said Siañez. “To be part of such a special group of girls is obviously really amazing. It’s just a great feeling to have and to be able to set a standard for the Mustangs for years to come.”
The Lady Mustangs now turn their attention to the postseason, as the team faces Cosumnes River Hawks in the first round. Delta shut-out the Hawks in both meetings this season by a combined score 4-0.
“I feel like we can play with the best teams in the state,” said coach Sorenson. “We proved that we belong in that category. So I think we’re ready and I’m excited to see what we do.”
