Women's soccer wins in shootout

By Josh Griffin

Behind the stellar play of tournament MVP junior Aly Wagner, the sixth-ranked Santa Clara women's soccer team captured the Santa Clara Adidas Classic title at the scorching confines of Buck Shaw Stadium this past weekend.

In their two matches, the Broncos defeated the Southern Methodist Mustangs 5-2 and the San Diego State Aztecs by the final score of 2-0.

In its sixth year, the Santa Clara Adidas Classic featured four teams. Besides the aforementioned SMU and San Diego State, the Cardinals of Stanford University made their third trip to the Classic. Stanford joined Santa Clara among the undefeated, also with victories over SMU and San Diego State.

In the tourney, Wagner racked up three goals and three assists in the two games, good enough for a tournament-high nine points. Wagner also led the Bronco contingent of four members to be named to the All-Classic team. She was joined by fellow midfielder sophomore Veronica Zepeda, as well as senior Danielle Slaton and freshman Leslie Osborne.

In its game Friday night against SMU, Santa Clara built a 2-0 lead at the half on goals from Zepeda and Wagner. Zepeda scored off a turnover in the Mustangs' goal box in the 14th minute, and assisted Wagner on the second goal at the 33rd minute.

The Mustangs rallied behind two goals from Jill Heinemann, both of which were converted off of corner kicks. Santa Clara replied with two goals of their own off corner kicks, the go-ahead by Acevedo and the fourth goal from Osborne. Wagner assisted both goals from the corner.

"I was very pleased with our play this past weekend," Head Coach Jerry Smith said. "This was especially demonstrated in the shots for and against, as well as our defensive rhythm within the flow of the game."

With the temperature reaching 95 degrees on Sunday afternoon, the Broncos closed out the Classic with a 2-0 victory over San Diego State. In the match, Santa Clara outshot the Aztecs 17-0 in the first half, and 27-3 overall.

Stanford also completed the tournament with a 2-0 record, defeating San Diego State 2-1 and SMU 4-0. The ultimate champion was determined by the amount of goals scored in the tournament, which lead to the tourney championship for the Broncos, who outscored Stanford seven goals to six.

"Stanford is a very good soccer team that is ranked in about the same spot [in the national rankings] as we are," Smith said. "We have similar styles, in that we both focus on having an attacking style. It should be a fun game for the both the player and coaches."

The 7-1 Broncos continue their season against the Stanford Cardinals this Friday at New Maloney Field in Palo Alto at 7:30 p.m.