Women's soccer team plays tough, but can't get by Orange Coast

Courtesy of Toni Lavacot
Courtesy of Toni Lavacot

Irvine Valley's women's soccer team dropped its second straight Orange Empire Conference contest, falling at Orange Coast, 2-1, on Friday afternoon.

The defeat dropped Irvine Valley's record to 5-9-2 overall and 3-7-2 in conference. Orange Coast improved to 9-5-3 overall and 8-3-2 in conference.

Orange Coast moved into third place in the conference standings with the victory.

Cori Haney had two goals in a three-minute span in the second half to lead Orange Coast.

Haney's goals were assisted by Ana Villanueva and Sydnee Busby.

After an uneventful first half of play, things finally swayed over to OCC's favor as a loose ball in the IVC scoring area was corralled by Villanueva, who fed a nice touch-pass to Haney and the sophomore midfielder didn't miss, giving Coast a 1-0 advantage in the 63rd minute.

In the 66th minute, a turnover by the Lasers led to an advantage by the Pirates and Busby found a wide-open Haney to the left. She scored to put Orange Coast up, 2-0.

It stayed that way until the 86th minute, when a defensive breakdown led to a 2-on-1 for IVC.

Freshman forward Alexandra Benedict took a pass from freshman forward Brenda Chopin and scored, to bring the Lasers back to within a goal with just a few minutes remaining in the contest.

But Irvine Valley couldn't get any further shots on the goal for the rest of the match and came up a goal short.

OCC goalie Odalis Elias finished with two saves, while Lasers' freshman goalkeeper Rebecca Trejo recorded four.

Irvine Valley will return to action next Tuesday with a home match against Cypress. The Lasers finish the regular season with three of their final four matches at home.