In their final two league matches the Lady Dons outshot their opponents as they typically do, but unfortunately couldn’t find the net enough to come out on top – a frustrating end to the regular season for the girls, especially given how well they played on the field and moved the ball around.

On Tuesday 2/10 the Dons faced off against the College Park Falcons in a light rain.  Right away it looked like the Dons would be able to pressure the Falcons goal and earn some shots.  Caroline Tumilty, Tori Hiatt, Casey Lerch, Grace Eppinger, Averly Ammerman, and Reese Tierney fired off shots in rapid succession as the Dons dominated possession through accurate passing and ball movement.  College Park would get a great opportunity on an open shot that, from the stands, looked like a for-sure goal, but goalie Maria Statnikova made a beautiful diving save.

The Dons would keep up the pressure all game working well in the midfield and attacking third.  Tatum Keely, Stella Beuchotte, Samantha Murdin, and Lily Polkinhorn would all get strong shots on goal.  Credit to the Falcons goalie who made a number of tremendous saves.  Strong defense by Keely, Edie Berzansky, Avery DeMent, and Hiatt would control the Falcons offense and only allow three more shots the entire match.  Unfortunately, one of those shots was on a penalty shot in the second half that would ultimately be the only goal scored in the match, giving College Park the 0-1 win.

On Thursday 2/12 the Lady Dons were at Northgate HS for their Senior Night.  Everyone knew it would be a challenging game, as they always are against the Broncos, but especially since they would be fired up for their Senior Night.  The beginning of the match didn’t disappoint as it progressed in a fast-paced, physical, back-and-forth battle.  Northgate rattled off some shots that would give goalie Statnikova three saves on the night.  Unfortunately, Northgate managed a couple of long balls to their forwards, one resulting in a goal; 0-1 at halftime.

The match continued to be back-and-forth, but the Acalanes defense held strong through very impressive play by Keely, DeMent, Berzansky, and Hiatt to clear out a number of dangerous crosses and block some shots.  Unfortunately, Northgate would get on the board again on a questionable goal that saw Statnikova get the ball knocked away as she was catching it, allowing a Bronco to tap it in the net; 0-2.

The Lady Dons never let up.  Despite being down by two goals, they kept hussling, passing, challenging, and pressuring the Northgate goal.  Polkinhorn, Keely, Berzansky, Eppinger, Beuchotte, and Cate McCormick had a number of nice crosses or passes into the box that just couldn’t quite get finished into the goal.  The Dons had a total of 16 shots by Beuchotte, Evelyn Lee, Murdin, Keely, Berzansky, Eppinger, McCormick, Hiatt, and Lerch, compared to the Northgate 12 shots.  Acalanes did get on the board through a nice pass for an assist by Murdin to Beuchotte for a clean goal into the right corner of the net; 1-2.  The Dons would keep up the pressure with a close chance by Eppinger and Murdin at the end of the match, ultimately seeing the ball bounce off the crossbar, but the offsides call would have negated any goal.  The match ended in a one-goal loss.

THE LADY DONS WILL NOW HIT THE ROAD ON TUESDAY 2/17 TO PIEDMONT FOR ROUND 1 OF DIVISION II NCS PLAYOFFS!