Farler, Rupp Carry Waves to 2-1 Win Over SCU
10/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Rupp (
“Those were two good goals,” Pepperdine head coach Tim Ward said. “I told Bo (
On Pepperdine’s second score, Rupp initiated the goal by laying the ball off her chest over to freshman defender Myriah Stockman (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS), who then floated a diagonal into the six where Farler redirected it past SCU goalkeeper Meagan McCray.
“Rupp played a nice ball over to
Rupp’s three-point day was her eighth of the year and raised her season point total to 24, which leads all Waves. Rupp needs six more points to become the sixth Wave to score 30 points in one season.
Megan Woods in 2005 was Pepperdine’s last 30-point scorer.
The second half did not go as smoothly for Pepperdine as
“There were some nerve-racking moments when all of a sudden it was 2-1, and we got defensive instead of sticking to our game plan,” Ward said. “Soccer is one of those sports where if you don’t kill off your opponent when you have the chance, they’ll come back to haunt you. We played well in the first half, outshot them 8-2, and led 2-0 when it could have been 3-0 or 4-0.”
The foul leading up to the PK was one of 24 called during a very physical contest, in which a handful of players from each bench were injured. Pepperdine lost two starters (Kelsey Baker and Copp) in the second half, giving Ward an early glimpse of next year’s team.
“We had a couple of our senior leaders go down, which forced us to play two freshmen (Stockman and Kelsey McGovern) and two sophomores (Cammie Burke and Haleigh Guertin) on the back line,” he said. “But I was pleased with the performances of our substitutes – they did a nice job and the team played with great character in the second half.”
The solid play of senior goalkeeper Kayla Stolte (
With 12 saves this weekend, Stolte has made 229 in her career and needs just 10 more to tie Sumon Nicole for second on Pepperdine’s all-time performance list. Anna Picarelli holds the Waves’ career record with 319 saves.
Sunday’s victory raised the Waves’ record to 7-9-2 (2-3 WCC) with two games remaining: a Nov. 2 trip to Saint Mary’s and the season finale Nov. 8 at home vs.
And with all the adversity the Pepperdine program has faced over the past two years, Ward wants nothing more than to finish at .500 with two more wins to end the season.
“We’ve already won more games this season than in all of 2007, and this talented group of seniors we have is a big reason why,” he said. “By winning today and getting these next two, I think that will prove to this team that they’re really good and we can carry that momentum into next spring.”
