Yeowomen Victorious Over Top-Ranked Tigers
Oberlin Defeats NCAC Powerhouse Wittenberg 2-1

by Elizabeth Logan

At 5:40 p.m. on Oct. 9, a group of tremendous athletes huddled together in a huge group hug, screaming. They had finally done it. In a 2-1 game, the Yeowomen had defeated Wittenberg, the number one team in the North Coast Athletic Conference.
The win against Wittenberg was truly remarkable considering the rough times the Yeowomen were coming out of. They had four games in the past week, tirelessly fighting off some of the best competitors in the conference.
On Oct. 2, Oberlin lost 1-0 to the College of Wooster, their opponents scoring a goal in the second period with only three minutes left on the clock. Wooster’s team, which now fills the number one spot in the NCAC rankings, had 11 shots on goal, a gargantuan number compared to the Yeowomen’s one. However, Oberlin’s defense valiantly fought off the aggressors. During the half she played, senior goalie Pam Walker kept every shot out of the cage. Walker is the top goalkeeper in the conference.
On Oct. 4, the Yeowomen were defeated for the second time by rival Ohio Wesleyan, 2-1. First-year Jamie Johnson scored one goal in the first half, but the Battling Bishops came back in the second half to overtake Oberlin with two goals.
Finally, on Saturday, Oct. 6, the team’s withering spirits were lifted as they defeated Earlham College for the second time. The Yeowomen dominated the Quakers 4-1. Defeating a team that had stayed below them in the conference seemed to help the Yeowomen get their momentum back. With 22 shots on goal, the Yeowomen regained their role as aggressors, while the Quakers, with a mere 2 shots on goal, proved to be the weaker team. Senior captain Emily Johnson, the NCAC’s leading scorer, knocked in a goal nine minutes into the first period with an assist by junior Chaney Stewman.
Senior Claire Sturm also scored in the first period with an assist by senior Vanessa Wirth. In the second period, the Yeowomen kept the pressure on with goals by Stewman and junior Nana Uemura, assisted by Sturm with only five minutes left in the game. After the Earlham game, the Yeowomen regained their confidence and were ready to give their all in a fight against Wittenberg. And they did, winning 2-1 in an outstanding show of both offensive and defensive skill.
In the first period, speedy right wing Wirth scored two goals with assists by Jaime Johnson and Sturm. “It was awesome! [Wirth] played really well. She was busting her butt, diving for balls, doing anything she could to get the ball across the end line. We owe those goals to her,” Stewman said.
“Vanessa was diving into the goal, she was on the ground, it was amazing,” junior midfielder Briana Quinn said.
“The two goals were the result of hustling and persistence more than anything else,” coach Liz Graham said.
Right after the first goal, the Tigers coach called a time out to help the team regroup. But apparently the break only gave the Yeowomen a chance to revitalize. Fifty-one seconds after they stepped back on the field, the ball was in the Wittenberg cage.
In the second period, Oberlin let up a bit allowing Wittenberg to come back with one goal six minutes into the second period. “I felt like in the second half we had lots of opportunities to score, but we didn’t execute,” Stewman said, “We didn’t have as many offensive corners as we could have, so we can improve on that.”
“In the second half there were a few minutes in the middle when we let down and let Wittenberg come back after their goal. We need to work on keeping the intensity up through the whole 70 minutes,” Quinn said.
Even when Wittenberg had the action cornered around the Oberlin goal, the Yeowomen defense was too dynamite to let anything pass them by.
Walker once again set the standard with a whopping 12 saves. “Our defense was awesome,” Quinn said, “J. Ray [senior defender Jessica Raynor] had the most amazing defensive save when there was five minutes left in the game.”
Said Graham, “Our defenders had some great interceptions that saved goals from going in. Pam Walker had a lot of good saves in the second half particularly.”
The last 15 minutes of the game were full of tension for both the players and the fans. With the score at 2-1, the outcome of the game hung in the balance. It was only a matter of time.
Defeating Wittenberg was a feat the Yeowomen had prepared for. So while the end of the game was joyous, it was not a huge surprise. “We really wanted to win,” Stewman said. “We had a lot of heart. We were so psyched. We were screaming in the pre-game warm up, and cheering through the whole game. We were pumped. ”
Quinn seconded Stewman’s assessment of the team’s readiness. “We carried the energy we had in the Earlham game over [to this game],” she said. “Wittenberg lost over the weekend, so they were pumped for this game, but we stepped up, out hustled them, and shut them down.”
The Yeowomen had a close game with Wittenberg the first time, playing on their astroturf and losing by only one goal. Knowing that the Tigers would struggle on grass, the Yeowomen had looked forward to playing on their home ground. “We thought Wittenberg was definitely beatable,” Quinn said, “and we were waiting to play them on grass.”
More than anything else, the win against Wittenberg gave the Yeowomen a chance to enjoy playing their game.
Spectators in the stands could see the smiles on the players faces after they drove the ball down the field or put it into the goal. The group hug after the clock ran out was a testament to the team’s closeness and their joy in success. “We definitely had fun,” Quinn said. “Everyone was psyched, especially after we scored our two goals.”
On Thursday, the Yeowomen faced their biggest rival, the Big Red of Denison College who are a mere one spot ahead of them in the rankings.
The Yeowomen avenged their pervious loss to Denison with a 3-1 win at home. Scoring for the Yeowomen were Emily Johnson with two goals and Quinn, who knocked in her first goal of the year. Walker played big in the goal, coming up with 10 saves.
The Yeowomen are now 6-5 overall and 5-5 in conference play.
The players hope they can keep their spirits alive for the coming games and keep their energy up. “We were all looking at the clock at the end,” Quinn said. “It was really hard to hold back from jumping up and down on the field in those last seconds. It’s important that for the rest of this week we carry that feeling with us. We have two hard games coming up.”

 

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