Westmont Men’s Soccer head coach Dave Wolf took his Warriors to Point Loma Nazarene to do battle with his brother Phil’s Sea Lions. Unfortunately for the Warriors (3-2), the young brother got the better of the older as Point Loma recorded a 3-1 win.

All of the scoring occurred in the first half. In just the fourth minute, Indiana Fuller touched in a pass from Will Cline to put the Sea Lions up 1-0. Cline then scored the next two goals. In the 18th minute, Cline scored from the top of the box on a pass from Eduardo Gallardo. In 30th minute, Cline scored an unassisted goal after he dribbled through the Warrior defense.

Westmont’s lone goal came in the 41st minute when Gabe Thurner converted a penalty kick.

The game brought to a conclusion the Warriors’ non-conference season. Both of the Warriors’ losses have come against NCAA Division II teams. Against NAIA schools, the Warriors are 3-0.

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By Kaci Mexico
September 17, 2016

After 110 minutes of fervent play, that included two ten minute over-time periods, seventh ranked Westmont Women’s Soccer (7-0-1) tied the Azusa Pacific Cougars (2-2-1). The final score was 0-0.

In the first half, the Cougars outshot the warriors 3-0; however, in the second half the shot count was more even-keeled as the Westmont had five to Azusa Pacific’s six shots.

In the first overtime period, the Cougar’s had three shots, including one shot on goal and in the second overtime period both the Warriors and the Cougars each had a significant opportunity to clinch the victory.

For the Cougars, Lindsey Ryals fired off a shot in the 104th minute, but was denied by Westmont goal keeper, Amber Rojas. Rojas made five key saves throughout the game – two of which were in overtime.

Westmont Volleyball, ranked third in the NAIA, extended its winning streak to 15 games on Saturday afternoon in Murchison Gymnasium. The Warriors (15-0, 4-0 GSAC) continued their record setting start, which began on August 18, by defeating the Hawks of San Diego Christian (6-8, 0-4 GSAC) in straight sets (25-16, 25-22, 25-14).

With a 10-9 lead in the opening frame, Taylor Beckman delivered a kill of a set from Amy Buffham that sparked a 6-1 Warrior run. The Hawks scored the next four points to pull within two (16-14), but the Warriors ended the threat by scoring the next six including two kills by Cassidy Rea and one each from Jessica McCann and Libby Dahlberg.

A bid by the Hawks to tie the match at one set each produced a thrilling second set. With the scored tied at 21, Sam Neely connected to put the Warriors ahead by one. Neely and Mila Maricic made it 23-21 when they blocked an attack by the Hawk’s Alyssa Eicher.

After a Hawks’ timeout, Eicher made good on an attack at the net, reducing the Warriors’ margin to one point (23-22). Westmont responded with back-to-back kills by Maricic and Beckman, giving the Warriors a two-set-to-none lead.

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After spending the first month of the 2016 season on the road, #3 Westmont Volleyball (14-0, 3-0 GSAC) was excited to finally have a chance to play in front of its home fans this evening. However, the Warriors would have to wait even longer before taking on Arizona Christian (1-5, 0-3) in the Golden State Athletic Conference match on Friday night.

Unfortunately, the Firestorm’s bus blew a tire near Phoenix and was delayed arriving at the Westmont campus. When the game finally got underway an hour and twenty minutes late, Westmont was ready to go. In a 56-minute affair, the Warriors defeated the Firestorm in straight sets (25-13, 25-10, 25-9).

“Today was a good solid team win,” offered Westmont head coach Patti Cook. “We came out strong. Arizona Christian came out strong as well. I was really impressed with their aggressiveness after dealing with a popped tire. They came out aggressive and strong, but we just played our game. When we play our game, we can overpower a lot of teams.”

The Warriors produced a .426 attack percentage by committing just four hitting errors over the three-set match while connecting on 33 of their 68 attacks. The Warriors’ offensive efficiency in the match ranks sixth best in program history.

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By Kaci Mexico
September 16, 2016

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced that Westmont’s Ron Smith is the recipient of the 2016 Clarence “Ike” Pearson Award. This honor is named for the former statistical crew chief for the NAIA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship and is given annually to honor an outstanding NAIA Sports Information Director and their significant contributions to the profession. This lifetime achievement award is the highest honor given by the NAIA-SIDA (a professional association for sports information directors within the NAIA).

“I feel very honored,” said Smith. “This is a very significant award and I know many of the people that have received it and I have a lot of respect for all of them. So, to be included among them is very honoring and humbling.”

By Kaci Mexico
September 14, 2016

Seventh ranked Westmont Women’s soccer (7-0) remained undefeated after Haley Parzonko earned a second-half hat trick to lead the Warriors to an 8-0 victory over the Bethesda Flames.

“It was fun to witness Haley get her first collegiate hat trick – that is always a special moment for a player,” explained head coach Chantel Cappuccilli. “I feel like we are constantly seeing numbers produced whether that is 16 different players scoring or that is a few players getting a number of goals. That to me says consistency within our offensive front – which moving forward into conference, will be a valuable asset that we can carry with us.”

The first goal of the game came in the third minute when Renee Gonsalves headed in a perfectly placed corner kick by Grace Lemley.

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By Kaci Mexico
September 13, 2016

Brooke Lillywhite was named the Golden State Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week after scoring three goals in two Westmont victories this past week.

Last Wednesday, in the Warriors’ 4-0 win over Division III University of Redlands, Lillywhite initiated the scoring when in the third minute of the game, she hit a volley off of a corner kick by senior Grace Lemley.

Lillywhite also triggered the scoring for the Warriors in their 5-1 victory over #24 Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) when she scored the first two goals of the game in under four minutes of play.

Westmont Men’s Soccer (3-1) took 94 minutes before it scored against #21 Marymount (3-1-1). When the golden goal from the foot of Augie Andrade found the back of the net to give Westmont a 1-0 win in overtime, head coach Dave Wolf became the 18th NAIA coach to reach 300 career wins.

Austin Lack received a pass in the middle of the field about 40 yards out. Lack passed the ball to Nate Ruble near the right touchline and then broke towards the goal. Ruble passed the ball back to Lack inside the box. Lack then flicked the ball on to Andrade who went one-on-one with the keeper to score the game winner.

“It was a little bit of a back heal by Austin, kind of a little cheeky against-the-grain type of a pass,” said Wolf of Lack’s pass.

“I thought that the first half felt a little bit like (Saturday’s) UC Merced game in the sense that I thought we were second best in a number of areas,” assessed Wolf. “I suppose that holding on and getting the game into the second half was a key part of the game for us.”

“We had a quick turnaround and you are never sure how that effects your group. We made a few changes and tried to get some fresh legs on the field. We still looked caught a little bit in the moment of Saturday. The first half was a lot for us.

“I really liked our team a lot in the second half. I really liked us in the final third of the field. It was the first time all season that I felt like we were dangerous. We looked really comfortable in the final third of the field in the second half. There was something about the mixture we had in the second half that really worked well.

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