Irvine Valley's women's soccer team finished up its 2015 season with a 3-1 defeat to Saddleback on Friday afternoon in an Orange Empire Conference match at IVC.
The Lasers played Saddleback tough throughout, but the Gauchos scored the final two goals of the contest to get the win.
Saddleback also earned the District Cup Trophy, which goes to the squad with the most points between the teams during the conference season.
Irvine Valley ended with a 6-12-2 record overall and 4-10-2 in conference. Saddleback locked up second place in the conference standings with the victory. The Gauchos improved to 16-3-2 overall and 12-2-2 in conference. The 16th win in a season is a program record for Saddleback.
Breanna Taboada scored first for Saddleback on Friday. She found the back of the net with a free kick from 25 yards out in the sixth minute.
The score remained that way for the rest of the half.
IVC out-shot the Gauchos, 9-5, in the opening half. The best chances came from sophomore forward Crystal Lefebvre and freshman forward Brenda Chopin.
Irvine Valley tied the match 30 seconds into the second half. Chopin beat a defender and got free down the right side. She sent a cross into the box where freshman forward Johana Abarca headed it home.
Saddleback scored the game-winning goal in the 63rd minute. Wendy Dina rolled a shot into an empty net after a mistake in the IVC back end.
And Emilee Monning put Saddleback ahead, 3-1, four minutes later. She took a pass from Danielle Scelsi and scored her team-leading 15th goal of the season.
Saddleback goalie Angelica Ramos made eight saves in goal on the day, while freshman Alexandra Benedict (playing the first half) and Herminia Verduzco (playing the second half) each made four saves for Irvine Valley.
It was the final match at Irvine Valley for sophomores Marissa Perez, Virginia Hickman, Christina Anderson, Lefebvre and Verduzco.
Lefebvre led Irvine Valley with six goals on the year. Anderson had three goals and two assists. Lefebvre, Perez and Hickman also played all 20 matches this season for IVC.
