Chastain Honored by Alma Mater

By Tom Schreier

"Coming here was the best decision I ever made," said Brandi Chastain ('91) before a crowd of Bronco fans during halftime of last Sunday's women's soccer match against Stanford, the new No. 1-ranked team in the nation.

Minutes later, the woman who converted the deciding penalty kick in the 1999 World Cup would unfurl a banner with her number 21 printed across it, a number that will never again be worn by a Santa Clara women's soccer player.

"What a great tribute for her," head coach Jerry Smith said of Chastain after his team's 0-2 loss. "Brandi is not only one of the greatest Santa Clara women's soccer players, one of the greatest Santa Clara athletes. [She's] one of the greatest women's soccer players ever to play."

Chastain, a two-time All-American at Santa Clara and an Archbishop Mitty High School alum, led the Broncos to their first-ever postseason appearance and a No. 3 national ranking in 1989 after transferring from University California Berkeley. A year later, she led Santa Clara to an 18-1-1 record, which was good enough for a No. 1 national ranking.

"She's been honored on so many levels," continued Smith. "It's nice to have her jersey as the first jersey retired from a women's soccer program."

Unfortunately, the Broncos could not follow in Chastain's footsteps and pick up the win on the historic night.

"They were a little better than us today," said Smith, who is entering his 25th season at Santa Clara. "Credit to Stanford, they outplayed us."

The crowd was electric at the beginning of the game, with Buck Shaw Stadium packed full of students that had recently returned to campus as well as many other supporters from the community coming out to see the Broncos face the Cardinal, a team that has been in the national championship each of the past two seasons.

"I loved the energy!" said Smith, whose team had played in seven previous contests (they are currently 3-1-4), including one home game. "It's great to have a home game when the students are back."

The large crowd was pacified, however, by two Stanford goals in the first half. Stanford senior Camille Levin connected with sophomore Sydney Payne for the first goal at 15:26.

"We chose to mark up one of their best play-makers, Teresa Noyola," said Bronco goaltender Bianca Henninger, a Santa Clara senior from Los Gatos, who also graduated from Archbishop Mitty High.

Although Noyola was not involved in the scoring, she was located near the net at the time of the goal.

"They ended up moving one of their outside backs into the center-midfield and we decided to stay marking her," said Henniger. "(Payne) ended up dribbling through, having too much space because we were occupied elsewhere."

Henniger was able to save two shots on goal in the 34th and 38th minutes. Six minutes later, Stanford freshman Chioma Ubogagu found junior Marjani Hing-Glover for the second tally, which came after a Santa Clara penalty.

"On the second goal we fell asleep on their free kick," said Henninger. "It cost us."

With a two-goal lead going into the second half, Stanford cracked down defensively and stifled the Bronco offense.

"In the second half we played with better attacking-minded soccer and we created some good chances," said Smith. "It's a mindset of ‘I'm about to score, I'm about to score,' which is a really hard thing in our sport.

"You only end up with two or three (goals) in the entire 90 minutes between the two teams, so it's hard to have the mentality of ‘I'm about to score, I'm about to score.'"

The entire game was very physical and there were many collisions between players from both teams.

 "(Stanford junior) Mariah Nogueira really dominated the physical aspect of the game, even up against some of our most physical players like Sophia Huerta or Julie Johnston," said coach Smith.

Two Broncos were injured during the game: senior Jenny LaPonte in the first half and sophomore Julie Johnston in the second, but both players got back on their feet and finished the tilt.

"We showed a lot of heart," said Henninger after the loss. "Unfortunately, we didn't really have anything to show for it."

Contact Tom Schreier at (408) 551-1918 or tschreier@scu.edu.