Waves Dominate Dons as Rupp Scores Twice

MALIBU, Calif. Â Pepperdine women’s soccer and its seven-woman senior class ended its 2008 campaign on a positive note, defeating West Coast Conference rival San Francisco, 3-0, Saturday afternoon at Tari Frahm Rokus Field. 

The victory lifted the Waves to a .500 record at 9-9-2 and a 4-3 mark in the WCC, while the Dons went winless vs. the conference at 0-7 and were 5-13-2 overall.

The Waves once again were led by senior forward Amanda Rupp (Encinitas, Calif./La Costa Canyon), who finished her career in style with two first-half goals. Rupp scored her first goal in the 28th minute, slamming back a Ashley Copp (Coronado, Calif./Coronado) missile that goalkeeper Sarah Garland couldn’t handle, and in the 32nd minute, punched in a beautiful post-to-post cross served up by classmate Emily Wynne (El Cajon, Calif./University HS).

Rupp’s season numbers were some of the best of any Wave in program history. She is only the sixth player to reach the 30-point plateau as she finished with 32 points on 12 goals and eight assists.

Her 12 goals tied her with four other players (Kristi DeVert, Jennifer Peterson, Lindsey Redlin, Megan Woods) for the third most in a single season, and her eight assists tied her with Kristi Devert for seventh on the all-time single season list.

Rupp’s career totals are also etched into the Pepperdine records books, compiling 58 points on 21 goals and 16 assists. She is only the ninth Wave to score 20 or more goals in a career.

Copp, who was credited with an assist on both goals, finished the year with 10 points and 22 for her career.

Wynne finished 2008 with 12 points, six of those via assists. Her career assist total of 21 ranks her fourth all time at Pepperdine.

Pepperdine put away the game for good in the 78th minute after junior Joanna Idom (Yorba Linda, Calif./Esperanza) combined with junior Alexis Farler (Roseville, Calif./Granite Bay HS), who hooked a shot into the upper right corner from inside the 18-yard box.

Defensively, senior goalkeeper Kayla Stolte (Santee, Calif./West Hills HS) couldn’t have had an easier final game as her back line of Haleigh Guertin (Corona, Calif./Santiago HS), Myriah Stockman (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS), Cammie Burke (Del Mar, Calif./Torrey Pines HS) and Kelsey McGovern (Coto de Caza, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic HS) limited USF to just two shots, one in each half.

Stolte ran off the line a few times, but the Dons were never able to coordinate an attack as good as the Waves, who peppered Garland with a season high 24 shots.

Garland, in her first start of the year, came away with an opponent season high 10 saves.

Despite the convincing victory and the fact that his team finished strong by winning its final three games, Waves’ head coach Tim Ward couldn’t help but feel a little bittersweet about today’s decision and the way this season played out as a whole.

“These girls are probably the best 9-9-2 team in the country,” he said. “We’ve experienced a lot of weird things this year from the injuries we suffered to the way some of our games have ended. But we fought back thanks to the leadership of our seniors Â they are just an unbelievable group of women who have made us very proud and we’re grateful for their service. Our program is in tremendous shape for what they’ve given us.”

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