By Natalie Means and Shrida Pandey, Staff Writers
// The Acalanes women’s soccer team (7-2-1) fell to the Campolindo Cougars (6-1-1) 2-0 in their rivalry game last Friday night.
The Acalanes stands were full of cheering students wearing onesies and holding up signs in support of the Lady Dons.
The two teams last faced each other in the North Coast Section (NCS) quarterfinals a year ago, where the Cougars beat the Lady Dons 3-1, eliminating them from the NCS tournament. Since then, the Lady Dons have looked forward to playing the Cougars again.
In the first half, both teams went back and forth, sharing possession of the ball and experienced several unsuccessful attempts to score.
Around the 20 minute mark, Campolindo received a free-kick, but Acalanes goalie Kate Carter deflected the shot off the post.
“Campo was probably the hardest team we have played all year, and their counterattacks are very dangerous because of the speed they have up top, which was challenging. Next time we play Campo, I think our team needs to remain fighting throughout the whole game,” senior Kate Carter said.
When the whistle blew to signal halftime, the game was scoreless, and there was no clear domination from either team.
As the game progressed in the second half, both teams’ defense did an excellent job protecting their goal until Campolindo began attacking with force. The Cougars scored their first goal from 18 yards out with 18 minutes remaining in the second half.
“I don’t feel like one team was ever dominating, I feel like Campo has always had a really strong offense, which made it pretty tough for our defense to hold them back. When we play Campo, it’s always a battle,” junior Aliye Wingate said.
Although the Lady Dons tried to even the score late in the second half, they could not find the net, and the Cougars scored again to put the game out of reach.
The Lady Dons look to move on from the loss and get back to their winning ways against Miramonte today.
“As a team, we were frustrated and upset because we thought we outplayed them, and we obviously wanted it more. We are now focusing on our next games, we just have to move past the loss and do better next time,” junior Sami Hansen said.