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BY CONOR CASEY

In print | November 8, 2007

“Sometimes it’s just how the ball bounces.”

Those were the words of women’s soccer head coach Todd Anckaitis in describing the team’s frustrating Centennial Conference semifinals match against Ursinus College Saturday afternoon. In that game, the Garnet played the Bears to a 0-0 through two overtimes, but ultimately fell short in penalty kicks, 5-3, because of one unlucky bounce.

The first 110 minutes of the game were fierce, with both teams trading shots, but neither team able to break through. Swarthmore controlled the flow for the better part of the game, out-shooting the Bears 16-5, forcing Ursinus goalie Ashley Potter to make 10 saves over the course of the game, while Garnet goalie Lauren Walker ’09 only had to make four.

“We dominated the play and possessed the ball really well,” Cait Mullarkey ’09 said. “We had some good combinations out of our midfield. We ran them silly.”

Ultimately, however, neither team was able to find the back of the net during regulation time, or during the two subsequent overtime periods. Of note for their efforts on the Garnet offensive were Julia Luongo ’10, Kirsten Peterson ’11 and Megan Colombo ’11, each of whom put up two shots on goal, as well as Sarah Reese ’11, who was responsible for three shots on goal.

With the two teams knotted-up after the second overtime period had ended, a winner needed to advance to the following day’s conference finals match-up against Johns Hopkins University, who had won their semifinals match earlier in the day. Thus, the game advanced to penalty kicks. Ursinus went first.

Each of the two teams scored on their first two attempts. Then the third Ursinus kicker stepped up, and drove the ball off the crossbar, where it bounced to the ground, and had enough spin on it to bounce across the goal line. The Bears had notched their third point in three tries. It was up to Swarthmore to even up the score again. Midfielder Maggie DeLorme ‘10 stepped up for the Garnet and delivered a searing shot that ricocheted off the crossbar, and like the Ursinus shot just before it, bounced directly down to the ground, but this time spun in the opposite direction, away from the goal. Swarthmore was down 3-2 because of an unlucky bounce. The Garnet made its next shot, but because the Bears made each of their next two, Swarthmore’s fifth and final shot was not necessary.

“It’s one of the reasons people don’t like this game,” Anckaitis said on Tuesday. “It can come down to a penalty kick shoot-out … It’s hard to be knocked out of the tournament on something like that. We felt we were the better team. So that’s frustrating, but we’re not going to hang our hats on that being representative of our season.”

As a tribute to its work throughout the season, Swarthmore got a third-seed bid to play in the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament that began yesterday. Swarthmore faced off against number six seed Misericordia University yesterday at home (see box). The team expressed excitement at the opportunity to extend its season.

“Everyone was disappointed about not making the NCAAs, so hopefully we can bring a trophy back with the ECACs,” Lizbeeth Lopez ’10 said.

Taylor Rhodes ‘10 was happy that the team had at least one more game to play alongside the seniors. "We’re looking forward to working with each other one last time," she said.

Meanwhile, Anckaitis has impressed on his players the opportunity that this extra postseason play provides.

“I told [the team] that not many teams in the country get to end their season on a win,” Anckaitis said. “We’re glad to have one more home game, and hopefully give [the fans] one more thing to cheer about.”

Monica Cody ’10 agreed, saying, “We want to make a statement.”

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