On a chilly Thursday night, the Lady Dons took to the pitch for their first season match.  Co-captain Tori Hiatt hyped up the team in their pre-game huddle and the starters took their positions with smiles but strong determination.  Acalanes started strong and showed good ball movement, hard challenges, and nice positioning to create a few early offensive opportunities.  However, the Northgate team seemed just as determined and ready with some strong defense and midfield work of their own.

Most of the match was a back-and-forth show of fairly equal skill and effort.  Both teams created opportunities for their attacking line through movement of the ball from defense through the midfield players.  Goalie Maria Statnikova had a very nice game with four saves.  Despite her efforts, Northgate managed the sole goal of the match off a nice corner kick that resulted in a one-touch shot that found net despite Statnikova amazingly getting a hand on the hard shot.

The Lady Dons continued their strong effort throughout the match, creating more offensive opportunities than Northgate, but just couldn’t manage to find the net.  Northgate seemed to have a little bit of Lady Luck on their side, but also a defense that closed on the Dons attackers almost immediately.  Defender Cassidy Smith had many of her signature long throw-ins that reached the middle of the box, almost creating a scoring opportunity with each throw.  Michela Barbano and Grace Eppinger each had a shot, while co-captain Tatum Keely had two shots.

All of the Acalanes players had a nice match, but some very determined play by Lily Polkinhorn stood out.  She seemed to have an elevated energy and personal agenda to attack every ball within reach or sprinting distance, even breaking up what Northgate thought was an easy goalie clear.  Despite all of the Lady Dons’ efforts, the match ended in a 0-1 loss.  They will hit the road on Tuesday 1/13 as they take on Benicia HS and be back home on Thursday 1/15 against the Clayton Valley Ugly Eagles.  Go DONS!